title: Epidemics with temporary link deactivation in scale-free networks.
abstract: During an epidemic, people may adapt or alter their social contacts to avoid infection. Various adaptation mechanisms have been studied previously. Recently, a new adaptation mechanism was presented in [1], where susceptible nodes temporarily deactivate their links to infected neighbors and reactivate when their neighbors recover. Considering the same adaptation mechanism on a scale-free network, we find that the topology of the subnetwork consisting of active links is fundamentally different from the original network topology. We predict the scaling exponent of the active degree distribution and derive mean-field equations by using improved moment closure approximations based on the conditional distribution of active degree given the total degree. These mean field equations show better agreement with numerical simulation results than the standard mean field equations based on a homogeneity assumption.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics & Astronomy, Iowa State University, Ames IA, 50011.
authors.forename: Maxim S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Shkarayev
authors.affiliation: John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics, University of Miami, Miami, FL 33156.
authors.forename: Ilker
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tunc
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Science, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA 23187.
authors.forename: Leah B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Shaw
keywords: adaptive networks; epidemics model; moment-closure approximation