2009/02/28 by Alain Pumir, Sitabhra Sinha, S. Sridhar +8 · 1 citation
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Computer Science · Neuroscience · Physics and Astronomy · #Neural dynamics and brain function #Nonlinear Dynamics and Pattern Formation #nlin.PS #physics.bio-ph #q-bio.TO #stochastic dynamics and bifurcation
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreve.81.010901
published as Phys. Rev. E 81, 010901(R) (2010) · Published version
openalex publication_date 2010/01/11 · arxiv created 2010/06/04 · arxiv updated 2010/06/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
A free vortex in excitable media can be displaced and removed by a wave train. However, simple physical arguments suggest that vortices anchored to large inexcitable obstacles cannot be removed similarly. We show that unpinning of vortices attached to obstacles smaller than the core radius of the free vortex is possible through pacing. The wave-train frequency necessary for unpinning increases with the obstacle size and we present a geometric explanation of this dependence. Our model-independent results suggest that decreasing excitability of the medium can facilitate pacing-induced removal of vortices in cardiac tissue.