Outcomes of propagating pulse collisions are of fundamental importance in many fields , ranging from physiology to industrial devices. Pulses are traditionally classified as solitons if upon collision they behave as particles, or excitable-pulses if they annihilate each other. Collisions in a non-equilibrium system with mass conservation, a common property of natural systems, exhibit rich dynamics that range from soliton-like to annihilation, and even nucleation of new pulses post-collision. Mass-conservation is shown to be a key ingredient for this behavior to occur robustly over a wide range of parameters. As such, collisions can be considered URLanizing centers, for example, in intracellular actin waves .
Excitable pulses are among the most widespread dynamical patterns that occur in many different systems , ranging from biological cells to chemical reactions and ecological populations. Traditionally, mutual annihilation of two colliding pulses is regarded as their prototypical signature. Here we show that colliding excitable pulses may exhibit soliton-like crossover and pulse nucleation if the system obeys a mass conservation constraint. In contrast to previous observations in systems without mass conservation, these alternative collision scenarios are robustly observed over a wide range of parameters. We exemplify our findings based on a model of intracellular actin waves. As biological cells are inherently mass-conserved systems, our results provide a key concept to understand the ubiquitous occurrence of actin waves in cells, explaining why they are so common, and why their dynamics is robust and long-lived .
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Outcomes of propagating pulse collisions are of fundamental importance in many fields
Excitable pulses are among the most widespread dynamical patterns that occur in many different systems
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physiology to industrial devices. Pulses are traditionally classified as solitons if upon collision they behave as particles, or excitable-pulses if they annihilate each other. Collisions in a non-equilibrium system with mass conservation, a common property of natural systems, exhibit rich dynamics that range from
biological cells to chemical reactions and ecological populations. Traditionally, mutual annihilation of two colliding pulses is regarded as their prototypical signature. Here we show that colliding excitable pulses may exhibit
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to annihilation, and even nucleation of new pulses post-collision. Mass-conservation is shown to be a key ingredient for this behavior to occur robustly
crossover and pulse nucleation if the system obeys a mass conservation constraint. In contrast to previous observations in systems without mass conservation, these alternative collision scenarios are robustly observed
R
As such, collisions can be considered URLanizing centers, for example, in intracellular actin waves
We exemplify our findings based on a model of intracellular actin waves. As biological cells are inherently mass-conserved systems, our results provide a key concept to understand the ubiquitous occurrence of actin waves in cells, explaining why they are so common, and why their dynamics is robust and long-lived