Preservation of local dynamics when applying central difference methods: application to SIR model

Abstract

We apply the central difference method (u t+1 − u t − 1)/(2Δt) = f(u t ) to an epidemic SIR model and show how the local stability of the equilibria is changed after applying the numerical method. The above central difference scheme can be used as a numerical method to produce a discrete-time model that possesses interesting local dynamics which appears inconsistent with the continuous model. Any fixed point of a differential equation will become an unstable saddle node after applying this method. Two other implicitly defined central difference methods are also discussed here. These two methods are more efficient for preserving the local stability of the fixed points for the continuous models. We apply conformal mapping theory in complex analysis to verify the local stability results.