Direct, physically-motivated derivation of the contagion condition for spreading processes on generalized random networks

Abstract

For a broad range single-seed contagion processes acting on generalized random networks, we derive a unifying analytic expression for the possibility of global spreading events in a straightforward, physically intuitive fashion. Our reasoning lays bare a direct mechanical understanding of an archetypal spreading phenomena that is not evident in circuitous extant mathematical approaches.

4 pages, 1 figure, 1 table