SIR epidemics on a scale-free spatial nested modular network with a non-trivial threshold

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the structure of scale-free spatial networks with nested communities influences epidemic thresholds, revealing conditions under which epidemics can or cannot spread widely.

Contribution

It introduces a new class of random scale-free spatial networks with nested communities and analyzes epidemic thresholds within this framework.

Findings

Epidemic threshold can be trivial or non-trivial depending on community size and transmission parameters.

Network structure critically affects epidemic spreading dynamics.

Conditions for epidemic outbreaks are characterized based on network parameters.

Abstract

We propose a class of random scale-free spatial networks with nested community structures and analyze Reed-Frost epidemics with community related independent transmissions. We show that the epidemic threshold may be trivial or not depending on the relation among community sizes, distribution of the number of communities and transmission rates