Phase transition for a contact process with random slowdowns

TL;DR

This paper studies a generalized contact process influenced by random environments, aiming to understand conditions for pest population survival or extinction in a stochastic setting.

Contribution

It introduces a new model of a contact process with random slowdowns, analyzing its phase diagram and coexistence/extinction mechanisms.

Findings

Identified conditions for coexistence and extinction.

Characterized phase transitions in the model.

Analyzed effects of dynamic and static environments.

Abstract

Motivated by a model of an area-wide integrated pest management, we develop an interacting particle system evolving in a random environment. It is a generalised contact process in which the birth rate takes two possible values, determined either by a dynamic or a static random environment. Our goal is to understand the phase diagram of both models by identifying the mechanisms that permit coexistence or extinction of the process.