Physical, transparent derivation of the contagion condition for spreading processes on generalized random networks

Peter Sheridan Dodds, Kameron Decker Harris, Joshua L. Payne

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.