[Tunneling of autowaves through unexcitable parts of active media]

The mechanisms of propagation of autowaves through local heterogeneities in active media were studied by computer simulation. The model proposed by Zel'dovich and Frank-Kamenetsky and that of FitzHugh-Nagumo were used for studying autowave tunneling. It was shown that the underbarrier passage of an autowave through a nonexcitable area is limited by threshold values. It was shown that, for every fixed parameter value corresponding to the degree of nonexcitability of a local area, there exists a critical value for nonexcitable zone latitude. An autowave overcomes the barrier and continues to propagate when the value of zone latitude is less than the critical. Critical conditions for the origination of sources of secondary periodical sequences of impulses in excitable medium were found. It was shown that the properties of sources of secondary autowaves can be modified by regulating the size of the nonexcitable zone and the zone of increased excitability. In particular, the conditions were explored under which spatial irregularity behaves as a source of a unidirectional and/or an asynchronous sequence of impulses.