Control of spatiotemporal patterns in the Gray-Scott model

Abstract: This paper studies the effects of a time-delayed feedback control on the appearance and development of spatiotemporal patterns in a reaction-diffusion system. Different types of control schemes are investigated, including single-species, diagonal, and mixed control. This approach helps to unveil different dynamical regimes, which arise from chaotic state or from traveling waves. In the case of spatiotemporal chaos, the control can either stabilize uniform steady states or lead to bistability between a trivial steady state and a propagating traveling wave. Furthermore, when the basic state is a stable traveling pulse, the control is able to advance stationary Turing patterns or yield the above-mentioned bistability regime. In each case, the stability boundary is found in the parameter space of the control strength and the time delay, and numerical simulations suggest that diagonal control fails to control the spatiotemporal chaos.