Impact of information diffusion on epidemic spreading in partially mapping two-layered time-varying networks.

Abstract

We propose a new epidemic model considering the partial mapping relationship in a two-layered time-varying network, which aims to study the influence of information diffusion on epidemic spreading. In the model, one layer represents the epidemic-related information diffusion in the social networks, while the other layer denotes the epidemic spreading in physical networks. In addition, there just exist mapping relationships between partial pairs of nodes in the two-layered network, which characterizes the interaction between information diffusion and epidemic spreading. Meanwhile, the information and epidemics can only spread in their own layers. Afterwards, starting from the microscopic Markov chain (MMC) method, we can establish the dynamic equation of epidemic spreading and then analytically deduce its epidemic threshold, which demonstrates that the ratio of correspondence between two layers has a significant effect on the epidemic threshold of the proposed model. Finally, it is found that MMC method can well match with Monte Carlo (MC) simulations, and the relevant results can be helpful to understand the epidemic spreading properties in depth.