Time-dependent solution of the NIMFA equations around the epidemic threshold (Q2219258)

This paper studies time-dependent solution of the \(N\)-intertwined mean-field approximation equations around the epidemic threshold, where the contact network under consideration has \(N\) nodes. The network has the adjacency matrix with element \(a_{ij}\) and the viral state of a node \(i\) is denoted by \(v_i(t)\) in the interval \([0,1]\). The \(N\)-intertwined mean-field approximation equation is given by \(dv_i(t)/dt=-\delta_iv_i(t)+(1-v_i(t))\sum_{j=1}^N\beta_{ij}a_{ij}v_j(t)\) for every group \(i=1,\cdots,N\), where \(\delta_i>0\) is the curing rate of node \(i\) and \(\beta_{ij}>0\) is the infection rate from node \(j\) to node \(i\). This work analyzes the dynamics of the viral state \(v_i(t)\) and focuses on the region around \(R_0=1\), where \(R_0\) is the basic reproduction number. If the initial states \(v_i(0)\) are small or parallel to the steady state, the closed form expression of the viral state \(v_i(t)\) is derived for every node \(i\) at time \(t\) when \(R_0\) tends to 1 from the above.