Abstract
Contact processes on complex networks are a recent subject of study in nonequilibrium statistical physics and they are also important to applied fields such as epidemiology and computer and communication networks. A basic issue concerns finding an optimal strategy for spreading. We provide a universal strategy that, when a basic quantity in the contact process dynamics, the contact probability determined by a generic function of its degree W(k), is chosen to be inversely proportional to the node degree, i.e., W(k)similar to k(-1), spreading can be maximized. Computation results on both model and real-world networks verify our theoretical prediction. Our result suggests the determining role played by small-degree nodes in optimizing spreading, in contrast to the intuition that hub nodes are important for spreading dynamics on complex networks.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 066109 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear and Soft Matter Physics |
Volume | 78 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Dec 2008 |
Keywords
- identical infectivity
- lattice