Epidemic spreading on heterogeneous networks with identical infectivity

Abstract

In this Letter, we propose a modified susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) model, in which each node is assigned with an identical capability of active contacts, A, at each time step. In contrast to the previous studies, we find that on scale-free networks, the density of the recovered individuals in the present model shows a threshold behavior. We obtain the analytical results using the mean-field theory and find that the threshold value equals 1/A, indicating that the threshold value is independent of the topology of the underlying network. The simulations agree well with the analytic results. Furthermore, we study the time behavior of the epidemic propagation and find a hierarchical dynamics with three plateaus. Once the highly connected hubs are reached, the infection pervades almost the whole network in a progressive cascade across smaller degree classes. Then, after the previously infected hubs are recovered, the disease can only propagate to the class of smallest degree till the infected individuals are all recovered. The present results could be of practical importance in the setup of dynamic control strategies.