Abstract
Random scale-free networks have the peculiar property of being prone to the spreading of infections. Here we provide for the susceptible-infected-susceptible model an exact result showing that a scale-free degree distribution with diverging second moment is a sufficient condition to have null epidemic threshold in unstructured networks with either assortative or disassortative mixing. Degree correlations result therefore irrelevant for the epidemic spreading picture in these scale-free networks. The present result is related to the divergence of the average nearest neighbor's degree, enforced by the degree detailed balance condition.
Keywords
scale-free networks, infectious disease, susceptible-infected-susceptible model
Subject Categories
Epidemics, Communicable diseases
Disciplines
Physics
Publisher
American Physical Society
Publication Date
1-17-2003
Rights Information
©2003 American Physical Society
Rights Holder
American Physical Society
Permanent URL
Recommended Citation
Boguna, M; Pastor-Satorras, R; and Vespignani, A, "Absence of epidemic threshold in scale-free networks with degree correlations" (2003). Physics Faculty Publications. Paper 192. http://hdl.handle.net/2047/d20002152
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Notes
Originally published in Physical Review Letters, v.90 no.2 (2003), 28701. DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.028701. Dr. Vespignani is affiliated with Northeastern University as of the time of deposit.