Cardiac arrhythmias and circle maps-A classical problem.

The periodic forcing of nonlinear oscillations can often be cast as a problem involving self-maps of the circle. Consideration of the effects of changes in the frequency and amplitude of the periodic forcing leads to a problem involving the bifurcations of circle maps in a two-dimensional parameter space. The global bifurcations in this two-dimensional parameter space is described for periodic forcing of several simple theoretical models of nonlinear oscillations. As was originally recognized by Arnold, one motivation for the formulation of these models is their connection with theoretical models of cardiac arrhythmias originating from the competition and interaction between two pacemakers for the control of the heart.