Autowaves: Results, Problems, Outlooks

Abstract

The autowaves [1–3] form a type of waves which are characteristic of strongly nonlinear active media. To here belong self-sustained signals inducing local release of stored energy in an active medium, which is spent to trigger the same process in adjacent regions. The examples are provided by waves of combustion, of phase transitions, concentrational waves in chemical reactions, and also by many biological autowave processes (propagation of nerve impulses, excitation waves in heart muscle, epidemic waves in ecological communities, spreading waves in the cerebral cortex). These examples stress the importance of autowave phenomena.