Infection patterns in simple and complex contagion processes on networks

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Contreras, Diego Andrés, Cencetti, Giulia, Barrat, Alain
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2023
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author Contreras, Diego Andrés
Cencetti, Giulia
Barrat, Alain
author_facet Contreras, Diego Andrés
Cencetti, Giulia
Barrat, Alain
contents Contagion processes, representing the spread of infectious diseases, information, or social behaviors, are often schematized as taking place on networks, which encode for instance the interactions between individuals. The impact of the network structure on spreading process has been widely investigated, but not the reverse question: do different processes unfolding on a given network lead to different infection patterns? How do the infection patterns depend on a model's parameters or on the nature of the contagion processes? Here we address this issue by investigating the infection patterns for a variety of models. In simple contagion processes, where contagion events involve one connection at a time, we find that the infection patterns are extremely robust across models and parameters. In complex contagion models instead, in which multiple interactions are needed for a contagion event, non-trivial dependencies on models parameters emerge, as the infection pattern depends on the interplay between pairwise and group contagions. In models involving threshold mechanisms moreover, slight parameter changes can significantly impact the spreading paths. Our results show that it is possible to study crucial features of a spread from schematized models, and inform us on the variations between spreading patterns in processes of different nature.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2309_10486
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Infection patterns in simple and complex contagion processes on networks
Contreras, Diego Andrés
Cencetti, Giulia
Barrat, Alain
Physics and Society
Contagion processes, representing the spread of infectious diseases, information, or social behaviors, are often schematized as taking place on networks, which encode for instance the interactions between individuals. The impact of the network structure on spreading process has been widely investigated, but not the reverse question: do different processes unfolding on a given network lead to different infection patterns? How do the infection patterns depend on a model's parameters or on the nature of the contagion processes? Here we address this issue by investigating the infection patterns for a variety of models. In simple contagion processes, where contagion events involve one connection at a time, we find that the infection patterns are extremely robust across models and parameters. In complex contagion models instead, in which multiple interactions are needed for a contagion event, non-trivial dependencies on models parameters emerge, as the infection pattern depends on the interplay between pairwise and group contagions. In models involving threshold mechanisms moreover, slight parameter changes can significantly impact the spreading paths. Our results show that it is possible to study crucial features of a spread from schematized models, and inform us on the variations between spreading patterns in processes of different nature.
title Infection patterns in simple and complex contagion processes on networks
topic Physics and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.10486