Dynamics of Elastic Excitable Media

The Burridge-Knopoff model of earthquake faults with viscous friction is equivalent to a van der Pol-FitzHugh-Nagumo model for excitable media with elastic coupling. The lubricated creep-slip friction law we use in the Burridge-Knopoff model describes the frictional sliding dynamics of a range of real materials. Low-dimensional structures including synchronized oscillations and propagating fronts are dominant, in agreement with the results of laboratory friction experiments. Here we explore the dynamics of fronts in elastic excitable media.