Threshold phenomenon and traveling waves for heterogeneous integral equations and epidemic models (Q2078594)

The article is devoted to the study of mathematical models of epidemiology described by the nonlinear equations of Volterra, Volterra-Fredholm and systems of ordinary differential equations. It consists of an introduction and three sections. The introduction provides an overview of mathematical models of epidemiology, including Kermack-McKendrick models, such as \[ u(t)=\int_0^t \Gamma (\tau)g(u(t-\tau))d\tau+f(t),\qquad t>0, \] SIR models and Diekmann-Thieme models, such as \[ u(t,x)=\int_0^t \int_{y \in \mathbb{R}^N} \Gamma(\tau,x,y)g(u(t-\tau,y))dyd\tau+f(t,x),\qquad t>0, \quad x \in \mathbb{R}^N, \] and the Diekmann model: \[ u(t,x)=\int_0^\infty \int_{y \in \mathbb{R}^N} \Gamma(\tau,x,y)g(u(t-\tau,y))dyd\tau, \qquad t \in \mathbb{R},\quad x \in \mathbb{R}^N. \] Here \(u>0\) is the cumulative strength of the infection, \(\Gamma\) characterizes the nature of the infection, \(g\) is the nonlinear growth of the infection. A qualitative analysis of the spread of infection is given. In the first section, under various assumptions, threshold phenomena are studied in the models represented by the above equations. In the second section, the occurrence of traveling wave solutions is investigated. Finally, in the third section, the results of the previous sections are applied to the study of spatially inhomogeneous SIR models.