Virus Spreading in Quantum Networks

TL;DR

This paper investigates how viruses spread in quantum networks, developing models to analyze their resilience, and finds that quantum networks are generally more resistant to infections than classical ones due to their sparser connectivity.

Contribution

It introduces a modified nonlinear dynamical system model for epidemiological analysis in quantum networks and compares their robustness to classical networks.

Findings

Quantum networks have higher epidemic thresholds than classical networks with identical topology.

The robustness of quantum networks is mainly due to their sparser connectivity.

At fixed average connectivity, quantum and classical networks show similar epidemic thresholds.

Abstract

Recent advances in quantum communication have enabled long-distance secure information transfer through quantum channels, giving rise to quantum networks with unique physical and statistical properties. However, as in classical networks, the propagation of viruses in these systems could have severe consequences. Here, we investigate the critical problem of virus spreading in quantum networks. We develop quantitative tools, particularly a modified nonlinear dynamical system model, for performing epidemiological analyses on quantum networks. Our results show that quantum networks tend to be more resilient to viral infections, exhibiting higher epidemic thresholds than classical networks with identical graph topologies. This apparent robustness, however, arises primarily from the sparser connectivity inherent to the quantum networks. When the comparison is made at a fixed average connectivity, classical and quantum networks display comparable epidemic thresholds. These findings provide key insights into the security and reliability of future large-scale quantum communication systems. Our work bridges the fields of quantum information science, network theory, and epidemiology, paving the way for future studies of quantum epidemiological dynamics.