Stochastic rumors on random trees

Abstract

The Maki-Thompson rumor model is defined by assuming that a population represented by a graph is subdivided into three classes of individuals; namely, ignorants, spreaders and stiflers. A spreader tells the rumor to any of its nearest ignorant neighbors at rate one. At the same rate, a spreader becomes a stifler after a contact with other nearest neighbor spreaders, or stiflers. In this work we study the model on random trees. As usual we define a critical parameter of the model as the critical value around which the rumor either becomes extinct almost-surely or survives with positive probability. We analyze the existence of phase-transition regarding the survival of the rumor, and we obtain estimates for the mean range of the rumor. The applicability of our results is illustrated with examples on random trees generated from some well-known discrete distributions.