Synchronization, Collective Behavior and Spatiotemporal Dynamics in Chemical Systems

West Virginia University Research Corporation, Morgantown WV

Investigators

Abstract

In this project funded by the Chemical Structure, Dynamics and Mechanisms Program (CSDM-A) of the Chemistry Division, Professor Kenneth Showalter and his students are studying complex dynamical behavior in chemical systems to gain insights into new types of dynamical behavior in man-made and living systems. Developing an understanding of such behavior in experimental studies facilitates the development of mathematical model descriptions that are relevant to the behavior of certain living organisms as well as synthetic dynamical systems such as computer networks. Research on new states of synchronization and collective behavior will provide insights into basic dynamical behaviors pervasive in living systems. Research on propagating waves in precipitation systems will offer new mechanisms for chemical waves that rely on structural features of the medium, much like wave behavior found in many biological systems. Networks of coupled chemical oscillators will be investigated in laboratory experiments and computational simulations. The recently discovered chimera state, in which populations of synchronized and unsynchronized oscillators coexist, will be further investigated, with the focus on the spiral chimera state in two-dimensional arrays of coupled oscillators. Further experimental investigations of phase-lag synchronization in networks of coupled chemical oscillators will also be carried out with two-dimensional oscillator arrays, which will allow a wide variety of network topologies and coupling schemes. Theoretically predicted echo phenomena will be investigated in populations of coupled chemical oscillators. Two-dimensional arrays of chemical oscillators will permit sufficiently large populations to allow the detection and characterization of echo behavior. New configurations and examples of propagating precipitation waves will be investigated. Open-reactor configurations will be developed for studies of propagating waves in redissolution precipitation bands based on the amphoteric sodium hydroxide-aluminum chloride system. Unstable spiral wave behavior leading to turbulence-like dynamics will be investigated as well as wave stacking, where waves collide with the waves ahead of them. Further development of a general three-dimensional computational model for propagating precipitation waves will be carried out as well as extending the model to describe wave behavior in open reactor configurations