Transitions between orbits of resonance attractors for spiral waves

Spiral waves rotating in a thin layer of the light-sensitive Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction can be controlled by the application of short light pulses at instants corresponding to the passage of a wave front through a measuring point. It is shown that such a feedback results in a drift of the spiral wave core along a discrete set of stable circular orbits centered at the measuring point, in good quantitative agreement with the theory of the resonance attractor recently developed. Variations of parameters in the feedback loop initiate transitions between orbits of different size. Thus a spiral wave drift can be induced along a snail-shaped trajectory with permanently growing distance from the measuring point.