Selection of spiral waves in excitable media with a phase wave at the wave back

Universal relationships between the medium excitability and the angular velocity and the core radius of rigidly rotating spiral waves in excitable media are derived for situations where the wave front is a trigger wave and the wave back is a phase wave. Two universal limits restricting the region of existence of spiral waves in the parameter space are demonstrated. The predictions of the free-boundary approach are in good quantitative agreement with results from numerical reaction-diffusion simulations performed on the Kessler-Levine model.