KINEMATIC EQUATIONS FOR FRONT MOTION AND SPIRAL-WAVE NUCLEATION

We present a new set of kinematic equations for front motion in bistable media. The equations extend earlier kinematic approaches by coupling the front curvature with the order parameter associated with a parity-breaking front bifurcation. In addition to naturally describing the core region of rotating spiral waves, the equations can be used to study the nucleation of spiral-wave pairs along uniformly propagating fronts. The analysis of spiral-wave nucleation reduces to the simpler problem of droplet, or domain, nucleation in one space dimension.