Inwardly rotating spiral waves in a reaction-diffusion system
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Updated: Jul 23, 2026

In Situ Monitoring of Diffusion of Guest Molecules in Porous Media Using Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Imaging
Published on: September 2, 2016
1Department of Chemistry and Volen Center for Complex Systems, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454, USA. vanag@brandeis.edu
Abstract:
Almost 30 years have passed since the discovery of concentric (target) and spiral waves in the spatially extended Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction. Since then, rotating spirals and target waves have been observed in a variety of physical, chemical, and biological reaction-diffusion systems. All of these waves propagate out from the spiral center or pacemaker. We report observations of inwardly rotating spirals found in the BZ system dispersed in water droplets of a water-in-oil microemulsion. These "antispirals" were also generated in computer simulations.
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