Abrupt phase transition of epidemic spreading in simplicial complexes

Understand

Recent studies on network geometry, a way of describing network structures as geometrical objects, are revolutionizing our way to understand dynamical processes on networked systems.

• Here, we cope with the problem of epidemic spreading, using the Susceptible-Infected-Susceptible (SIS) model, in simplicial complexes.
• In particular, we analyze the dynamics of SIS in complex networks characterized by pairwise interactions (links), and three-body interactions (filled triangles, also known as 2-simplices).
• This higher-order description of the epidemic spreading is analytically formulated using a microscopic Markov chain approximation.