Complex organizing centers in groups of oscillatory particles

We investigate the origin and evolution of spatiotemporal complexity in a system of locally coupled Belousov-Zhabotinsky chemical oscillators. Using a combination of high resolution microscopy and fine grain numerical modeling, we demonstrate that the behavior arises from an initial phase heterogeneity of the oscillators. This heterogeneity produces wave breaks in the system with the free ends becoming pinned to holes in the medium. The fastest of these pinned tips behave as reentrant circuits that phase set the rest of the medium. The slower tips are repeatedly destroyed and then re-created by the central circuit. The resulting spatiotemporal pattern repeats with the frequency of the reentrant circuit, with its spatial structure depending on the location of the initial wave breaks.