Disease Spreading in Structured Scale-Free Networks

TL;DR

This paper investigates how disease spreads on structured scale-free networks, revealing that network topology and initial conditions critically influence epidemic thresholds and dynamics.

Contribution

It provides numerical and analytical insights into epidemic spreading on structured scale-free networks, highlighting the role of topology and initial infection density.

Findings

Epidemic threshold depends on initial infected density and model type.

Unbounded connectivity fluctuations affect epidemic dynamics.

Absence of small-world properties influences spreading behavior.

Abstract

We study the spreading of a disease on top of structured scale-free networks recently introduced. By means of numerical simulations we analyze the SIS and the SIR models. Our results show that when the connectivity fluctuations of the network are unbounded whether the epidemic threshold exists strongly depends on the initial density of infected individuals and the type of epidemiological model considered. Analytical arguments are provided in order to account for the observed behavior. We conclude that the peculiar topological features of this network and the absence of small-world properties determine the dynamics of epidemic spreading.