Search arXiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · nlin/0204040

Multiple mechanisms of spiral wave breakup in a model of cardiac electrical activity

Flavio H Fenton·Elizabeth M Cherry·Harold M. Hastings·Steven J. Evans
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

It has become widely accepted that the most dangerous cardiac arrhythmias are due to re- entrant waves, i.e., electrical wave(s) that re-circulate repeatedly throughout the tissue at a higher frequency than the waves produced by the heart's natural pacemaker (sinoatrial node). However, the complicated structure of cardiac tissue, as well as the complex ionic currents in the cell, has made it extremely difficult to pinpoint the detailed mechanisms of these life-threatening reentrant arrhythmias. A simplified ionic model of the cardiac action potential (AP), which can be fitted to a wide variety of experimentally and numerically obtained mesoscopic characteristics of cardiac tissue such as AP shape and restitution of AP duration and conduction velocity, is used to explain many different mechanisms of spiral wave breakup which in principle can occur in cardiac tissue. Some, but not all, of these mechanisms have been observed before using other models; therefore, the purpose of this paper is to demonstrate them using just one framework model and to explain the different parameter regimes or physiological properties necessary for each mechanism (such as high or low excitability, corresponding to normal or ischemic tissue, spiral tip trajectory types, and tissue structures such as rotational anisotropy and periodic boundary conditions). Each mechanism is compared with data from other ionic models or experiments to illustrate that they are not model-specific phenomena. The fact that many different breakup mechanisms exist has important implications for antiarrhythmic drug design and for comparisons of fibrillation experiments using different species, electromechanical uncoupling drugs, and initiation protocols.

Explore related subjects

nlin.PSq-bio

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Flavio H Fenton, Elizabeth M Cherry, Harold M. Hastings, Steven J. Evans. 2002-04-16. Multiple mechanisms of spiral wave breakup in a model of cardiac electrical activity. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1504242

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Rolls and Snaking in a Swift-Hohenberg Equation with Non-smooth Nonlinearity

We study rolls and homoclinic snaking in a variation of the one-dimensional Swift-Hohenberg equation, whose standard forms are prototypical order-parameter models for pattern formation in the sciences. Motivated by classes of differential equation models that involve continuous non-smooth low order nonlinear terms, we replace the standard quadratic-cubic nonlinearity by $ν|u|^α-u^3$, $α\in [1,2]$ with $ν> 0$. In the vicinity of zero, for $α<2$ this nonlinearity falls outside the scope of classical Taylor expansion and bifurcation analysis. Our partially analytical and partially numerical results highlight that the non-smooth term modifies the criticality of pattern-forming bifurcations and alters the associated branches of solutions. In particular, $α\in(1,2)$ implies subcriticality of roll bifurcations for any $ν>0$. At $α=1$ differentiability is lost, which has a strong impact on the bifurcations of sign-changing rolls including the disappearance of homoclinic snaking. Homoclinic snaking thus emerges non-smoothly as $α$ increases from $α=1$, and persists when retaining an additional, e.g., quadratic term.

nlin.PS↗
arXiv2026

Vegetation Pattern Formation with an Energy-Mismatch Variational Closure

We study a vegetation-water model motivated by a canopy energy mismatch. Vegetation follows the gradient of a score that rewards biomass and penalizes the squared mismatch, while water obeys a quasi-steady balance. For a fixed interaction kernel, the linear growth rate about positive uniform vegetation splits into a fixed-water term and a water-feedback term. The fixed-water term is real, even in wavenumber, and equal to a constant minus a squared modulus, including when the kernel is asymmetric. All linear phase propagation enters through water feedback. A second-order expansion of the kernel gives a fourth-order vegetation equation, for which we derive finite-wavenumber growth criteria and corrections from state-dependent spatial coefficients. The short-wave damping and fastest-growing scales of this truncated model require separate justification as approximations to a specified kernel. A numerical dispersion example illustrates the growth and phase velocity of its linear modes. The model creates biomass on bare ground throughout the rainfall range illustrated here, including zero rainfall. At some smooth nonnegative states, the vegetation growth rate is negative where biomass vanishes. These features limit its ecological interpretation.

nlin.PS↗
arXiv2026

Two-Parameter Family of Nonlinear Dirac Equations With Scalar-Scalar plus Vector-Vector Interactions

We obtain exact solutions of the nonlinear Dirac equation in $1+1$ dimensions of the form $ψ(x,t) = e^{-iωt} ψ(x)$ for scalar-scalar (SS) plus vector-vector (VV) interaction with interaction Lagrangian given by $$L_{I} = \frac{g^2}{κ+1}[(\barψ ψ)^{κ+1} +\frac{1}{p} (\barψ γ_μψ\barψ γ^μ ψ)^{κ+1}]$$ where $p > 0$ but arbitrary otherwise. We look for solutions with $0 < ω< m$ where $ω, m$ are frequency and mass, respectively. We find solutions for all values of $ω$ in this range. We compute the charge $Q$ and the energy $E$ for each of the solitary wave solutions and explore the region in the ($p, κ$) parameter space in which solitary wave bound states exist (i.e., for which $E/Q < m$). We show that for all the cases while both $E$ and $Q$ depend on the coupling constant $g$, their ratio $E/Q$ is independent of $g$. We further find that in case $pκ\le 1$, the charge density for all the solitary waves have only single hump while for $p κ> 1$ there is a transition from double to single hump and we determine it as a function of $ω/m$. We notice that for all $p$ there is a transition at $κ=2$ in the behavior of $E/Q$ as a function of $ω$ which we speculate is related to the onset of instability of the solutions at $κ=2$. We obtain the nonrelativistic reduction of the two-parameter family to a non-relativistic modified nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE) and discuss the stability of the single hump olitary waves in the domain of validity of the modified NLSE.

nlin.PS↗