General properties of the electric-field-induced vortex drift in excitable media

The drift of vortices induced by an applied constant electric field is explained by theoretical results obtained from general reaction-diffusion equations. It is shown that the existence of a component of the drift velocity perpendicular to the direction of the external field naturally follows from these equations. General properties are obtained that show the regularity of this phenomenon, independently on the concrete form of the equations. These results confirm the numerical simulations and the experiments performed with an Oregonator model and the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction, respectively.