Critical value for the contact process with random edge weights on regular tree

TL;DR

This paper investigates the critical infection rates for contact processes with random edge weights on regular trees, establishing limit theorems and bounds, and analyzing differences between annealed and quenched measures.

Contribution

It provides a precise analysis of critical values for contact processes with random weights on regular trees, including a dichotomy criterion for quenched measures.

Findings

Critical values satisfy an identical limit theorem under the annealed measure.

A precise lower bound for the exponential extinction critical value is established.

The critical value under the quenched measure equals the annealed value or is infinite, depending on a dichotomy criterion.

Abstract

In this paper we are concerned with contact processes with random edge weights on rooted regular trees. We assign i.i.d weights on each edge on the tree and assume that an infected vertex infects its healthy neighbor at rate proportional to the weight on the edge connecting them. Under the annealed measure, we define the critical value \lambda_c as the maximum of the infection rate with which the process will die out and define \lambda_e as the maximum of the infection rate with which the process dies out at exponential rate. We show that these two critical values satisfy an identical limit theorem and give an precise lower bound of \lambda_e. We also study the critical value under the quenched measure. We show that this critical value equals that under the annealed measure or infinity according to a dichotomy criterion. The contact process on a Galton-Watson tree with binomial offspring distribution is a special case of our model.