Spiral wave dynamics in the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation with broken chiral symmetry

The effect of adding a chiral symmetry breaking term to the two-dimensional complex Ginzburg-Landau equation is investigated. We find that this term causes a shift in the frequency of the spiral wave solutions and that the sign of this shift depends on the topological charge (handedness) of the spiral. For parameters such that nearly stationary spiral domains form (called a "frozen" state), we find that, due to this charge-dependent frequency shift, the boundary between oppositely charged spiral domains moves, resulting in the domination of one domain of charge over the other. In addition, we introduce a quantity which measures the chirality of patterns and use it to characterize the transition between frozen and turbulent states. We also find that, depending on parameters, this transition occurs in two qualitatively distinct ways. Copyright (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.