It is well established that a traveling wave can be generated on an excitable field, which is described with a pair of partial differential equations for an activator and inhibitor. In the present paper, we use a numerical simulation to show that the traveling wave, or signaling pulse, can be transmitted from an excitable field to an opposing excitable field via an intervening passive diffusion field in a characteristic manner depending on the spatial geometry of the excitable fields. Using such characteristics, it is possible to design various kinds of logic gates together with a time-sequential memory device. Thus, these functions can perform time-sensitive operations in the absence of any controlling clock. It may be possible to accomplish these computations with excitable fields in an actual system, or to create a “field computer” composed of electronic active and passive units.

• Received 19 November 1998

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.59.5354