Propagation of spiral waves in anisotropic media: from waves to stripes

The effects of anisotropic diffusion on the propagation of spiral waves in excitable media are studied numerically by means of time-linearized methods in very refined meshes and with very small time steps. It is shown that the anisotropy of the inhibitor's diffusivity tensor does not play as important role on wave propagation as that of the activator. It is also shown that the off-diagonal components of the activator's diffusivity tensor cause stretching of the activator's concentration along the principal directions of this tensor, and that a large difference between the diffusion coefficients in the x- and y-directions may result in the spiral wave annihilation and stripe formation. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.