Optimal control approach to termination of re-entry waves in cardiac electrophysiology (Q353099)

In this investigation, the authors propose an optimal control approach for the termination of re-entry waves in cardiac electrophysiology. The control enters as an extracellular current density into the bi-domain equations which are well-established model equations in the literature to describe the electrical behavior of the cardiac tissue. The optimal control formulation is inspired, in part, by the dynamical systems behavior of the underlying system of differential equations. The existence of optimal controls is established and the optimality system is formally derived. The numerical realization is described in detail and numerical experiments, which demonstrate the capability of influencing and terminating the reentry phenomena, are presented.