Dynamics of a three-ring BZ chemical reaction-diffusion oscillator network*

We confine the auto-catalytic, light-sensitive, Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction to micro-fabricated networks of containers of nanoliter volume constructed from the elastomer PDMS using soft lithography. Each container can be regarded as a single pointlike network node that emits and receives inhibitory and excitatory chemical signals. Here we present the dynamics of a reaction-diffusion 3-ring chemical oscillator network. This network has two large stable attractors with large basins of attraction; clockwise and counterclockwise waves of excitation. In this work we discuss the role that topology has on the network dynamics and compare experiment with two theoretical phase models: the chemical Vanag-Epstein model and the Kuramoto model.