Eliminating spiral waves and spatiotemporal chaos using feedback signal

Spiral waves and spatiotemporal chaos are sometimes harmful and should be controlled. In this letter we present a feedback scheme to eliminate them. We first collect feedback signals at a certain time t<Subscript>0</Subscript>. Then wait for the system at the excitable position to enter the recovering state. When the time comes, the feedback signals are added. This scheme has two advantages. Firstly, the tip can be eliminated together with the body of spiral wave. Secondly, the injected feedback signals can be very weak and the duration can be very short so that the original system is nearly not to be affected, which is important for practical applications. Copyright EDP Sciences/Società Italiana di Fisica/Springer-Verlag 2007