Long-range epidemic spreading with aging in structured networks

Frank Namugera, Ronald Katende, Onesfole Kurama and John Mango Magero

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2025, vol. 676, issue C

Abstract: We investigate a stochastic contact process with long-range transmission, age-dependent recovery, and infectivity to study how aging and spatial heterogeneity jointly affect epidemic spreading. Through a mean-field analysis, we determine how the critical infection rate λc depends on three exponents: the spatial decay exponent α, the recovery exponent δ, and the infectivity exponent γ. We find that α predominantly controls the threshold behavior, but as spatial interactions become increasingly localized (α→∞), the temporal exponents δ and γ play a dominant role. In particular, slower recovery (δ<1) enhances memory effects and spatial correlations, promoting infection persistence and lowering λc, whereas faster recovery suppresses local clustering and raises the threshold. These results reveal how non-Markovian temporal dynamics and long-range spatial coupling interact to shape critical behavior in epidemic processes on complex networks.

Keywords: Epidemic spreading; Long-range interactions; Aging dynamics; Non-Markovian recovery; Structured networks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:676:y:2025:i:c:s0378437125004935

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2025.130841

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