Canards are solutions of singularly perturbed ODEs that organise the dynamics in phase and parameter space. In this talk, we explore two aspects of canard theory: their applications in the life sciences and their ability to generate new phenomena.
More specifically, we will use canard theory to analyse a canonical model of the electrical activity in a heart muscle cell. We demonstrate that pathological heart rhythms, called early afterdepolarisations, are canard-induced phenomena. We use this knowledge to explain the rich set of model behaviours, some of which have also been observed in experiments. Then, we explore a new class of canard-induced patterns in reaction-diffusion PDEs which exhibit coexisting domains of mutually synchronised oscillators and complementary domains of decoherent (asynchronous) oscillators.
This video was produced by the Sydney Mathematical Research Institute, as part of their SMRI seminar series.
