Unstable concentration gradients inherent in traveling chemical waves can give rise to buoyancy-driven convection, altering the speed of the wave. When an excitable Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction system is confined within a sufficiently narrow, vertical two-dimensional channel, convection arises at a symmetry-breaking bifurcation point. The observed linear rate of change of wave speed with the bifurcation parameter is a necessary consequence of the Z2 symmetry present.

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