Epidemic spreading in evolving networks

Abstract

A model for epidemic spreading on rewiring networks is introduced and analyzed for the case of scale free steady state networks. It is found that contrary to what one would have naively expected, the rewiring process typically tends to suppress epidemic spreading. In particular it is found, that as in static networks under a mean-field approximation, rewiring networks with degree distribution exponent γ>3 exhibit a threshold in the infection rate below which epidemics die out in the steady state. However the threshold is higher in the rewiring case. For 2<γ≤3 no such threshold exists, but for small infection rate the steady state density of infected nodes (prevalence) is smaller for rewiring networks.