Contribution of hidden modes to nonlinear epidemic dynamics in urban human proximity networks

Recently developed techniques to acquire high-quality human mobility data allow large-scale simulations of the spread of infectious diseases with high spatial and temporal resolution.Analysis of such data has revealed the oversimplification of existing theoretical frameworks to infer the final epidemic size or influential nodes from the network topology. Here we propose a spectral decomposition-based framework for the quantitative analysis of epidemic processes on realistic networks of human proximity derived from urban mobility data. Common wisdom suggests that modes with larger eigenvalues contribute more to the epidemic dynamics. However, we show that hidden dominant structures, namely modes with smaller eigenvalues but a greater contribution to the epidemic dynamics, exist in the proximity network. This framework provides a basic understanding of the relationship between urban human motion and epidemic dynamics, and will contribute to strategic mitigation policy decisions.