Traveling Waves in the Belousov–Zhabotinskii Reaction

A brief description of the chemistry of the reaction and the derivation of a model of the propagating wave fronts are given. The model considered is a system of two coupled parabolic equations, representing the concentrations of two of the chemical intermediates in the reaction. The dependence of the traveling waves on the diffusion of these chemicals is analyzed by alternately ignoring the diffusion in each chemical. It is found that under experimentally realistic conditions, waves are found in only one of the reduced systems. Computations of the wave speed in this case are in good agreement with the experimental results.