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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Phys.
Sec. Social Physics
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fphy.2024.1435767
This article is part of the Research Topic Compartmental Models for Social Interactions View all 4 articles

Building a network with assortative mixing starting from preference functions, with application to the spread of epidemics

Provisionally accepted
Razvan G. Romanescu Razvan G. Romanescu *
  • Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Compartmental models of disease spread have been well studied on networks built according to the Configuration Model, i.e., where the degree distribution of individual nodes is specified, but where connections are made randomly. Dynamics of spread on such 'first order' networks were shown to be profoundly different compared to epidemics under the traditional mass action assumption. Assortativity, i.e., the preferential mixing of nodes according to degree, is a second order property that is thought to impact epidemic trajectory. We first show how assortative mixing can come about from individual preferences to connect with others of lower or higher degree, and propose an algorithm for constructing such a network. We then investigate via simulation how this network structure favors or inhibits diffusion processes, such as the spread of an infectious disease.

    Keywords: graphs, degree distribution, Edge matrix, Assortative mixing, Network construction

    Received: 21 May 2024; Accepted: 15 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Romanescu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Razvan G. Romanescu, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada

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