Use of enumerative combinatorics for proving the applicability of an asymptotic stability result on discrete-time SIS epidemics in complex networks

Abstract

In this paper, we justify by the use of Enumerative Combinatorics, the applicability of an asymptotic stability result on Discrete-Time Epidemics in Complex Networks, where the complex dynamics of an epidemic model to identify the nodes that contribute the most to the propagation process are analyzed, and, because of that, are good candidates to be controlled in the network in order to stabilize the network to reach the extinction state. The epidemic model analyzed was proposed and published in 2011 by of Gómez et al. The asymptotic stability result obtained in the present article imply that it is not necessary to control all nodes, but only a minimal set of nodes if the topology of the network is not regular. This result could be important in the spirit of considering policies of isolation or quarantine of those nodes to be controlled. Simulation results using a refined version of the asymptotic stability result were presented in another paper of the second author for large free-scale and regular networks that corroborate the theoretical findings. In the present article, we justify the applicability of the controllability result obtained in the mentioned paper in almost all the cases by means of the use of Combinatorics.