Spiral wave meandering, wavefront-obstacle separation and cardiac arrhythmias

Spiral wave tips rotate either around a circular core or meander, inscribing a non-circular pattern. The transition to meandering was found to be equivalent to the transition from wave tip separation to wave tip attachment around the end of an unexcitable strip of thickness comparable to the wavefront thickness. The medium properties defining the transition from circular to non-circular spiral tip movement is accurately predicted by the balance of the diffusive fluxes in the vicinity of the wave tip within the boundary layer of the order of the wavefront thickness. Small changes in the boundary layer charge can dramatically alter spiral tip motion and provide a new tool for control and classification of cardiac arrhythmias.