Nature of the Epidemic Threshold for the Susceptible-Infected-Susceptible Dynamics in Networks

We develop an analytical approach to the susceptible-infected-susceptible epidemic model that allows us to unravel the true origin of the absence of an epidemic threshold in heterogeneous networks. We find that a delicate balance between the number of high degree nodes in the network and the topolog...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Boguñá, Marián, Castellano, Claudio, Pastor-Satorras, R. (Romualdo), 1967-
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2013
Country:España
Institution:Universidad de Barcelona
Repository:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/53287
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/53287
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Epidemiologia
Internet
Xarxes socials
Xarxes neuronals (Neurobiologia)
Percolació (Física estadística)
Termodinàmica
Sistemes no lineals
Epidemiology
Social networks
Neural networks (Neurobiology)
Percolation (Statistical physics)
Thermodynamics
Nonlinear systems
Description
Summary:We develop an analytical approach to the susceptible-infected-susceptible epidemic model that allows us to unravel the true origin of the absence of an epidemic threshold in heterogeneous networks. We find that a delicate balance between the number of high degree nodes in the network and the topological distance between them dictates the existence or absence of such a threshold. In particular, small-world random networks with a degree distribution decaying slower than an exponential have a vanishing epidemic threshold in the thermodynamic limit.