← the lab

Complex Ginzburg-Landau: Spiral Waves

Rotating spirals, target patterns, and defect-mediated turbulence

PARAMETERS

Presets:
Spirals Target Turbulence Phase chaos
Benjamin-Feir?
1+bc:
Steps: 0

The Complex Ginzburg-Landau equation:

∂A/∂t = A+(1+ib)∇²A−(1+ic)|A|²A

b controls linear dispersion; c controls nonlinear frequency shift. The Benjamin-Feir instability occurs when 1+bc < 0 — plane waves are unstable and defect-mediated turbulence emerges.

Spiral cores are topological defects (vortices of A) — they spontaneously emit target waves. Near the Hopf bifurcation, CGLE is universal for oscillating media.

Phase turbulence (large b,c) shows spatiotemporal chaos even without amplitude fluctuations.