Spiral waves in excitable media due to noise and periodic forcing

We investigate the jointly driven effects of external periodic forcing and Gaussian white noise on meandering spiral waves in excitable media with FitzHugh–Nagumo local dynamics. Interesting phenomena resulted from various forcing periods are found, for example, piece-wise line drift, intermittent straight-line drift and so on. We also observe new type of breakup of spiral wave between entrainment bands with 1:1 and 2:1. It is believed that the occurrence of the new type is relevant to the appearance of local bidirectional propagation window. There exist optimized noise intensities which can induce the broadest entrainments and Arnold tongues. Such a phenomenon is referred to as stochastic resonance. It is also observed that the noise makes significant effects on the spiral wave with straight-line drift. Via the tip Fourier spectrum, the varying of tip motion with external periods on the resonance band is interpreted.

► Excitable media jointly driven by periodic forcing and Gaussian white noise.
► The joint driving leads to many unique tip motions.
► New type of spiral wave breakup occurs between entrainment bands with 1:1 and 2:1.
► Arnold tongues for different noise intensities exhibit stochastic resonance.
► Fourier spectrum analysis can interpret tip motions and formation of entrainments.