Nucleation and collapse of scroll rings in excitable media.

We describe a novel nucleation mechanism of scroll rings in three-dimensional reaction-diffusion systems with anomalous dispersion. The vortices form after the collision of two spherical wave fronts from a third, trailing wave that only partially annihilates in the wake of its predecessor. Depending on the relative positions of the three relevant wave sources, one obtains untwisted or twisted scroll rings. The formation of both vortex structures is demonstrated for a modified Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction.