Stabilization of stationary excitation pulses in an open flow without long-range inhibition

We study numerically and experimentally the stabilization of stationary excitation pulses in an open flow system. Since all the species have equal flow and diffusion coefficients, stabilization of stationary pulses by long-range inhibition is excluded. Upstream propagating pulses slow down as they approach the inflow boundary, where a constant forcing establishes a downstream extending subexcitable boundary layer. When the flow velocity is low, successive pulses vanish as they reach the subexcitable region. When the flow velocity is increased, the incoming pulses pile up near the inflow one after the other to form a stationary and space-periodic structure. This occurs in such a manner that the system remembers and stores the number of incoming pulses. We show that flow-induced stabilization of stationary pulses involves a mechanism by which the upstream subexcitable region and the flow cause the arrest of the pulse front and the pulse back, respectively. We discuss how the flow-stabilized structures compare to, and are different from those stabilized by a long-ranged, diffusive inhibition and from those observed in boundary-forced open flows of media showing relaxation-type oscillations.