Spreading of epidemics on scale-free networks with nonlinear infectivity

In this paper, we study the spreading of epidemics on scale-free networks with infectivity which is nonlinear in the connectivity of nodes. We will show that the nonlinear infectivity is more appropriate than constant or linear ones, and give the epidemic threshold of the SIS model on a scale-free network with nonlinear infectivity. In addition, we compare the effects of nonlinear infectivity on the epidemic threshold with two other cases on infinite and finite scale-free networks, and find some new results, such as: with unit recovery rate and nonlinear irrational infectivity, the epidemic threshold is always positive; and the epidemic threshold can increase with network size an finite networks, contrary to the Findings in all previous work. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.