Termination of Scroll Waves by Surface Impacts

Three-dimensional scroll waves direct cell movement and gene expression, and induce chaos in the brain and heart. We found an approach to terminate multiple three-dimensional scrolls. A pulse of a properly configured electric field detaches scroll filaments from the surface. They shrink due to filament tension and disappear. Since wave emission from small heterogeneities is not used, this approach requires a much lower electric field. It is not sensitive to the details of the excitable medium. It may affect future studies of low-energy chaos termination in the heart.