Abstract
A periodic force applied to a nonlinear pendulum can cause the pendulum to become entrained at a frequency that is rationally related to the applied frequency, a phenomenon known as frequency-locking1. A recent theoretical analysis showed that anarray of coupled nonlinear oscillators can exhibit spatial reorganization when subjected to external periodic forcing2. We present here experimental evidence that reaction–diffusion processes, which govern pattern evolution and selection in many chemical and biological systems3, can also exhibit frequency-locking phenomena. For example, periodic optical forcing of the light-sensitive Belousov–Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction transforms a rotating spiral wave4 to a labyrinthine standing-wave pattern (Fig. 1). As the forcing frequency is varied, we observe a sequence of frequency-locked regimes, analogous to the frequency-locked ‘tongues’ of a driven nonlinear pendulum, except that in the reactor different frequencies correspond to different spatial patterns. Resonant interactions leading to standing-wave patternshave not been observed previously in chemical or biological media, but periodic forcing (such as circadian rhythm) is abundant in nature and may lead to similar pattern-forming phenomena.
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Acknowledgements
We thank A. Lee for discussions and G. Li for help in conducting the experiments. This work was supported by the US Department of Energy Office of Basic Energy Sciences and the Robert A. Welch Foundation.
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Petrov, V., Ouyang, Q. & Swinney, H. Resonant pattern formation in achemical system. Nature 388, 655–657 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/41732
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/41732
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