Annihilation dynamics during spiral defect chaos revealed by particle models

Area of Science:

• Computational Physics
• Biophysics
• Complex Systems

Background:

• Pair-annihilation events are common in spatially extended systems, often requiring computationally intensive simulations.
• Spiral wave tips in cardiac models exhibit complex dynamics, including spiral defect chaos.

Approach:

• Developed a computationally efficient particle model to simulate pair-annihilation of spiral wave tips.
• Represented spiral wave tips as particles with diffusive and short-ranged attractive dynamics.
• Calibrated particle model parameters by comparing particle motion to cardiac model spiral wave tip trajectories.

Key Points:

• The particle model accurately reproduces annihilation rates and statistics of spiral wave dynamics, including mean termination time.
• Increasing the attraction coefficient significantly reduces the mean termination time.
• Identified attraction dynamics as a potential target for pharmaceutical intervention in cardiac arrhythmias.

Conclusions:

• The particle model offers an efficient alternative to complex simulations for studying spiral wave dynamics.
• Understanding annihilation dynamics can lead to novel therapeutic strategies for cardiac conditions.
• The model's principles may extend to other physical systems exhibiting pair-annihilation events.