Abstract
Calculations are performed to model several phenomena observed when a photosensitive oscillating chemical reaction, the Briggs–Rauscher (BR) reaction, is subject to irradiation in a continuous‐flow stirred‐tank reactor. The BR mechanism proposed earlier by De Kepper and Epstein is supplemented by additional steps involving the photogeneration and subsequent reaction of iodine atoms. The calculations show qualitative agreement with the following experimentally observed phenomena: (a) change in the period and amplitude of oscillation as a function of the intensity of constant illumination, (b) synchronization between periodically varying illumination and the period of chemical oscillation, (c) phase shifts induced by single light pulses, and (d) dark steady states which are excitable by single light pulses and become oscillatory at appropriate levels of constant illumination.