The effect of the forget-remember mechanism on spreading

J. Gu, W. Li () and X. Cai

The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, 2008, vol. 62, issue 2, 247-255

Abstract: We introduce a new mechanism—the forget-remember mechanism into the spreading process. Equipped with such a mechanism an individual is prone to forget the “message" received and remember the one forgotten, namely switching his state between active (with message) and inactive (without message). The probability of state switch is governed by linear or exponential forget-remember functions of history time which is measured by the time elapsed since the most recent state change. Our extensive simulations reveal that the forget-remember mechanism has significant effects on the saturation of message spreading, and may even lead to a termination of spreading under certain conditions. This finding may shed some light on how to control the spreading of epidemics. It is found that percolation-like phase transitions can occur. By investigating the properties of clusters, formed by connected, active individuals, we may be able to justify the existence of such phase transitions. Copyright EDP Sciences/Società Italiana di Fisica/Springer-Verlag 2008

Keywords: 89.75.Fb Structures and organization in complex systems; 89.70.+c Information theory and communication theory; 89.75.Hc Networks and genealogical trees (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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DOI: 10.1140/epjb/e2008-00139-4

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