The contact process on dynamical scale-free networks

Abstract

We investigate the contact process on four different types of scale-free inhomogeneous random graphs evolving according to a stationary dynamics, where each potential edge is updated with a rate depending on the strength of the adjacent vertices. Depending on the type of graph, the tail exponent of the degree distribution and the updating rate, we find parameter regimes of fast and slow extinction and in the latter case identify metastable exponents that undergo first order phase transitions.