Applications of Local Activity Theory of CNN to Controlled Coupled Oregonator Systems

The study of chemical reactions with oscillating kinetics has drawn increasing interest over the last few decades because it also contributes towards a deeper understanding of the complex phenomena of temporal and spatial organizations in biological systems. The Cellular Nonlinear Network (CNN) local activity principle introduced by Chua [1997, 2005] has provided a powerful tool for studying the emergence of complex patterns in a homogeneous lattice formed by coupled cells. Recently, Yang and Epstein proposed a reaction–diffusion Oregonator model with five variables for mimicking the Belousov–Zhabotinskii reaction. The Yang–Epstein model can generate oscillatory Turing patterns, including the twinkling eye, localized spiral and concentric wave structures. In this paper, we first propose a modified Yang–Epstein's Oregonator model by introducing a controller, and then map the revised Oregonator reaction–diffusion system into a reaction–diffusion Oregonator CNN. The Oregonator CNN has two cell equilibrium points Q1 = (0, 0, 0, 0, 0) and Q2, representing the "original" equilibrium point and an additional equilibrium point, respectively. The bifurcation diagrams of the Oregonator CNN are calculated using the analytical criteria for local activity. The bifurcation diagrams of the Oregonator CNN at Q1 have only locally active and unstable regions; and the ones at Q2 have locally passive regions, locally active and unstable regions, and edge of chaos regions. The calculated results show that the parameter groups of the Oregonator CNN which generate complex patterns are located on the edge of chaos regions, or on locally active unstable regions near the edge of chaos boundary. Numerical simulations show also that the Oregonator CNNs can generate similar dynamics patterns if the parameter groups are selected the same as those of the Yang–Epstein model. In particular, the parameters of the Yang–Epstein model which exhibit twinkling-eye patterns, and pinwheel patterns are located on the edges of chaos regions near the boundaries of locally active unstable regions with respect to Q2. The parameters of the Yang–Epstein models which exhibit labyrinthine stripelike patterns are located on the locally active unstable regions near the boundaries of the edge of chaos regions with respect to Q2. However the parameter group of the Yang–Epstein model with isolated spiral patterns is in the locally passive region near the boundary with edge of chaos with respect to Q2, whose trajectories tend to the equilibrium point Q2. Choosing a kind of triggering initial conditions given in [Chua, 1997], and the parameters of the Oregonator equations with the twinkling-eye patterns, pinwheel patterns, labyrinthine stripelike patterns, and isolated spiral patterns, three kinds of new spiral waves generated by the Oregonator CNNs were observed by numerical simulations. They seem to be essentially different patterns to those generated by the Oregonator CNNs with initial conditions consisting of equilibrium points plus small random perturbations. Our results demonstrate once again Chua's assertion that a wide spectrum of complex behaviors may exist if the corresponding CNN cell parameters are chosen in or near the edge of chaos region.