Density wave propagation of a wave train in a closed excitable medium.

A wave train in an excitable reaction-diffusion medium shows a variety of spatiotemporal patterns as a result of interactions between the individual waves. In this paper, we report a novel spatiotemporal pattern in a wave train in a closed excitable medium. We carried out experiments using a photosensitive Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction with Ru(bpy)(3)(2+) as a catalyst and a numerical calculation using the FitzHugh-Nagumo equation. A wave train was locally distributed as an initial condition and the number of waves was systematically varied. In both the experiment and numerical calculation, density wave propagation was formed in a wave train during relaxation with a large number of waves. Our results suggest that density wave propagation originates from inhibitory interaction between the waves.