Cooperate epidemic spreading on multiplex networks with heterogeneous population

Abstract

Cooperate epidemic spreading dynamics has attracted much attention from the field of network science. In this paper, we study the cooperate epidemic spreading dynamics on multiplex networks with heterogeneous populations, which induces the heterogeneous coinfection susceptibility. We propose a spreading model to describe the evolution mechanisms. To predict the final state of the epidemic outbreak size, a generalized bond percolation theory is suggested. Through numerical simulations and theoretical analyses, we find that the system exhibits a discontinuous phase transition for large average and small variance of the distribution of coinfection susceptibility on ER–ER multiplex networks, while the phase transition is continuous on SF–SF networks. In addition, the final outbreak size increases with the average coinfection susceptibility and decreases with the variance of the coinfection susceptibility. Our suggested bond percolation theory can well predict the numerical simulations.