Infections on Temporal Networks—A Matrix-Based Approach

We extend the concept of accessibility in temporal networks to model infections with a finite infectious period such as the susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) model. This approach is entirely based on elementary matrix operations and unifies the disease and network dynamics within one algebraic framework. We demonstrate the potential of this formalism for three examples of networks with high temporal resolution: networks of social contacts, sexual contacts, and livestock-trade. Our investigations provide a new methodological framework that can be used, for instance, to estimate the epidemic threshold, a quantity that determines disease parameters, for which a large-scale outbreak can be expected.