Bifurcations in synergistic epidemics on random regular graphs

Abstract

The role of cooperative effects (i.e. synergy) in transmission of infection is investigated analytically and numerically for epidemics following the rules of susceptible-infected-susceptible (SIS) model defined on random regular graphs. Non-linear dynamics are shown to lead to bifurcation diagrams for such spreading phenomena exhibiting three distinct regimes: non-active, active and bi-stable. The dependence of bifurcation loci on node degree is studied and interesting effects are found that contrast with the behaviour expected for non-synergistic epidemics.