Interaction dynamics of a pair of vortex filament rings

Vortex filament-filament interactions are believed to underlie lethal arrhythmias in cardiac tissue but their dynamics remain poorly understood. We numerically replicate an experimentally postulated reentrant filament configuration as a pair of adjacent circular filaments (scroll rings) with common symmetry axes and varying initial radii and separation distances. The interaction properties are quantified in terms of the scroll-ring lifetime T(L) and direction of initial velocity V0. Two cases were examined, differing only in the direction of the wave around the filament, and observed drastic differences in T(L) between the cases as the separation distance between the rings was decreased. We conclude that ring interactions present unexpected behaviors associated with competing interaction and decay mechanisms.