Quarantine generated phase transition in epidemic spreading

C. LAGORIO; MARK DICKINSON; FEDERICO VAZQUEZ; L. A. BRAUNSTEIN; P. A. MACRI; S. HAVLIN; H. E. STANLEY

PHYSICAL REVIEW E - STATISTICAL PHYSICS, PLASMAS, FLUIDS AND RELATED INTERDISCIPLINARY TOPICS

American Phyical Society

Año: 2011 vol. 83 p. 26102 - 26106

1063-651X

We study the critical effect of quarantine on the propagation of epidemics on an adaptive network of social contacts. For this purpose, we analyze the susceptible-infected-recovered model in the presence of quarantine, where susceptible individuals protect themselves by disconnecting their links to infected neighbors with probability w and reconnecting them to other susceptible individuals chosen at random. Starting from a single infected individual, we show by an analytical approach and simulations that there is a phase transition at a critical rewiring (quarantine) threshold wc separating a phase (w