Stationary vortex loops induced by filament interaction and local pinning in a chemical reaction-diffusion system

Scroll rings are three-dimensional excitation waves rotating around one-dimensional filament loops. In experiments with the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction we show that the collapse of these loops can be stopped by local pinning to only two unexcitable heterogeneities. The resulting vortices rotate around stationary but curved filaments. The absence of filament motion can be explained by repulsive interaction that counteracts the expected curvature-induced motion. The shape and key dependencies of the stationary filaments are well described by a curvature-flow model with additive interaction velocities that rapidly decrease with filament distance.