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Updated: Jul 3, 2026

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
Published on: March 3, 2017
Three-dimensional spiral waves in an excitable reaction system: initiation and dynamics of scroll rings and scroll
Tamás Bánsági1, Oliver Steinbock
1Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306-4390, USA.
Abstract:
We report experimental results on spiral and scroll waves in the 1,4-cyclohexanedione Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction. The propagating concentration waves are detected by two-dimensional photometry and optical tomography. Wave pulses can disappear in front-to-front and front-to-back collisions. This anomaly causes the nucleation of vortices from collisions of three nonrotating waves. In three-dimensional systems, these vortices are scroll rings that rotate around initially circular filaments. Depending on reactant concentrations, the filaments shrink or expand indicating positive and negative filament tensions, respectively. Shrinkage results in vortex annihilation. Expansion is accompanied by filament buckling and bending, which is interpreted as developing Winfree turbulence. We also describe the initiation of scroll ring pairs in four-wave collisions. The two filaments are stacked on top of each other and their motion suggests filament repulsion.
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