Simulation of SPDEs for excitable media using finite elements (Q898420)

This paper is concerned with the numerical simulation of the SPDE \(du=[\nu\Delta u+1/{\varepsilon}f(u,v)]dt+ \sigma dW\) on \([0,T]\times D\), where \(D\) is a regular open subset of \(\mathbb{R}^2\) or \(\mathbb{R}^3\) and \(v\) is ruled by the auxiliary equation \(dv=g(u,v)dt\). The numerical scheme is based on finite difference discretization in time. In space, the finite element method is preferred to the Galerkin or semigroup methods. The strong order of convergence is investigated because pathwise properties are considered. The above SPDE system may generate and perpetuate reentrant patterns due to the presence of noise, and therefore it may be used to model some phenomena of tachycardia. Numerical bifurcation diagrams between the noise intensity \(\sigma\) and the time scale \(\varepsilon\) of the models are also provided.