Nature 271, 89 - 90 (05 January 1978); doi:10.1038/271089a0

Chaos in the Zhabotinskii reaction

OTTO E. ROSSLER^* & KLAUS WEGMANN^†

^*Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, University of Tübingen, and Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Stuttgart
^†Institute for Chemical Plant Physiology, University of Tübingen, 7400 Tübingen, FRG

THE Belousov−Zhabotinskii reaction is a chemical Bonhoeffer−van der Pol circuit, that is, a relaxation oscillator that can be run as both an astable and a monostable 'flip-flop'¹⁻³. Apparently the reaction also belongs to the slightly more complicated class of'universal circuits'⁴ as introduced by Khaikin⁵⁻⁶. Oscillators of this type not only show 'smooth' and 'relaxation type' oscillations⁵⁻⁶, but also 'chaotic' oscillations⁴. As evidenced by the simplest equation of this type⁷, both 'spiral type' and 'screw type' chaos²⁰ are possible in such systems. We present here preliminary evidence for the occurrence of screw-type chaos in the Zhabotinskii reaction.

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