Phase diagrams of interacting spreading dynamics in complex networks

Abstract

Epidemic spreading processes in the real world can interact with each other in a cooperative, competitive, or asymmetric way, requiring a description based on coevolution dynamics. Rich phenomena such as discontinuous outbreak transitions and hystereses can arise, but a full picture of these behaviors in the parameter space is lacking. We develop a theory for interacting spreading dynamics on complex networks through spectral dimension reduction. In particular, we derive from the microscopic quenched mean-field equations a two-dimensional system in terms of the macroscopic variables, which enables a full phase diagram to be determined analytically. The diagram predicts critical phenomena that were known previously but only numerically, such as the interplay between discontinuous transition and hysteresis as well as the emergence and role of tricritical points.