arXiv subjects

Gergely Ódor

Publications and source records attributed to Gergely Ódor.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Preferential Attachment with Local Flexibility

From the formation of social ties to the budding quantum internet, growing networks often exhibit local flexibility upon new nodes attaching to an existing network. In our proposed model, a new node connects uniformly at random to a node within the proximity of the intended target, including, but not restricted to, the target itself. Through numerical simulations and rigorous stochastic analysis, we find this local flexibility to qualitatively change the global network behavior of nonlinear preferential attachment. Depending on whether the preferential attachment is superlinear or (sub)linear, two distinct classes of complex network architectures emerge. The superlinear phase leads to a layered hierarchy, with no stationary degree distribution. Although there is a stationary degree distribution in the linear and sublinear cases, it decays strictly faster than for the Barabási--Albert model. We interpret our results within a two-dimensional phase diagram of network growth models incorporating redirection, with broad implications.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions Reshape Network Immunization Outcomes

Herd immunity is shaped not only by the infection capacity of a spreading epidemic or the contact structure of the hosting population, but also by how and under what circumstances individuals acquire immunity. Immunization strategies may interact with ongoing non-pharmaceutical interventions, which commonly aim to reduce social contact numbers. We demonstrate that these interactions can induce unexpectedly strong and counterintuitive effects on herd immunity. We explore these phenomena on spatially embedded contact networks and uncover a reversal in the relative effectiveness of disease- versus vaccine-induced immunization schemes, highlighting the average number of contacts as a critical determinant of emerging herd immunity. In sparse geometric networks with limited degree heterogeneity, uniform vaccination proves most effective; however, as average contact numbers increase, naturally acquired immunity ultimately becomes the better strategy. We show that this phenomenon may emerge not only in synthetic networks but also in real-world mixing networks, observed during non-pharmaceutical intervention periods across multiple states of the United States.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2025

Epidemic-induced local awareness behavior inferred from surveys and genetic sequence data

Behavior-disease models suggest that pandemics can be contained cost-effectively if individuals take preventive actions when disease prevalence rises among their close contacts. However, assessing local awareness behavior in real-world datasets remains a challenge. Through the analysis of mutation patterns in clinical genetic sequence data, we propose an efficient approach to quantify the impact of local awareness by identifying superspreading events and assigning containment scores to them. We validate the proposed containment score as a proxy for local awareness in simulation experiments, and find that it was correlated positively with policy stringency during the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, we observe a temporary drop in the containment score during the Omicron wave in the United Kingdom, matching a survey experiment we carried out in Hungary during the corresponding period of the pandemic. Our findings bring important insight into the field of awareness modeling through the analysis of large-scale genetic sequence data, one of the most promising data sources in epidemics research.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2025

Epidemic paradox induced by awareness driven network dynamics

We study stationary epidemic processes in scale-free networks with local awareness behavior adopted by only susceptible, only infected, or all nodes. We find that while the epidemic size in the susceptible-aware and the all-aware models scales linearly with the network size, the scaling becomes sublinear in the infected-aware model. Hence, fewer aware nodes may reduce the epidemic size more effectively; a phenomenon reminiscent of Braess's paradox. We present numerical and theoretical analysis, and highlight the role of influential nodes and their disassortativity to raise epidemic awareness.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2024

Distinguishing mechanisms of social contagion from local network view

The adoption of individual behavioural patterns is largely determined by stimuli arriving from peers via social interactions or from external sources. Based on these influences, individuals are commonly assumed to follow simple or complex adoption rules, inducing social contagion processes. In reality, multiple adoption rules may coexist even within the same social contagion process, introducing additional complexity into the spreading phenomena. Our goal is to understand whether coexisting adoption mechanisms can be distinguished from a microscopic view, at the egocentric network level, without requiring global information about the underlying network, or the unfolding spreading process. We formulate this question as a classification problem, and study it through a Bayesian likelihood approach and with random forest classifiers in various synthetic and data-driven experiments. This study offers a novel perspective on the observations of propagation processes at the egocentric level and a better understanding of landmark contagion mechanisms from a local view.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2023

Switchover phenomenon for general graphs

We study SIR type epidemics on graphs in two scenarios: (i) when the initial infections start from a well connected central region, (ii) when initial infections are distributed uniformly. Previously, Ódor et al. demonstrated on a few random graph models that the expectation of the total number of infections undergoes a switchover phenomenon; the central region is more dangerous for small infection rates, while for large rates, the uniform seeding is expected to infect more nodes. We rigorously prove this claim under mild, deterministic assumptions on the underlying graph. If we further assume that the central region has a large enough expansion, the second moment of the degree distribution is bounded and the number of initial infections is comparable to the number of vertices, the difference between the two scenarios is shown to be macroscopic.

math.CO↗

arXiv2021

The power of adaptivity in source identification with time queries on the path

We study the problem of identifying the source of a stochastic diffusion process spreading on a graph based on the arrival times of the diffusion at a few queried nodes. In a graph $G=(V,E)$, an unknown source node $v^* \in V$ is drawn uniformly at random, and unknown edge weights $w(e)$ for $e\in E$, representing the propagation delays along the edges, are drawn independently from a Gaussian distribution of mean $1$ and variance $σ^2$. An algorithm then attempts to identify $v^*$ by querying nodes $q \in V$ and being told the length of the shortest path between $q$ and $v^*$ in graph $G$ weighted by $w$. We consider two settings: non-adaptive, in which all query nodes must be decided in advance, and adaptive, in which each query can depend on the results of the previous ones. Both settings are motivated by an application of the problem to epidemic processes (where the source is called patient zero), which we discuss in detail. We characterize the query complexity when $G$ is an $n$-node path. In the non-adaptive setting, $Θ(nσ^2)$ queries are needed for $σ^2 \leq 1$, and $Θ(n)$ for $σ^2 \geq 1$. In the adaptive setting, somewhat surprisingly, only $Θ(\log\log_{1/σ}n)$ are needed when $σ^2 \leq 1/2$, and $Θ(\log \log n)+O_σ(1)$ when $σ^2 \geq 1/2$. This is the first mathematical study of source identification with time queries in a non-deterministic diffusion process.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2021

Source Detection via Contact Tracing in the Presence of Asymptomatic Patients

Inferring the source of a diffusion in a large network of agents is a difficult but feasible task, if a few agents act as sensors revealing the time at which they got hit by the diffusion. A main limitation of current source detection algorithms is that they assume full knowledge of the contact network, which is rarely the case, especially for epidemics, where the source is called patient zero. Inspired by recent contact tracing algorithms, we propose a new framework, which we call Source Detection via Contact Tracing Framework (SDCTF). In the SDCTF, the source detection task starts at the time of the first hospitalization, and initially we have no knowledge about the contact network other than the identity of the first hospitalized agent. We may then explore the network by contact queries, and obtain symptom onset times by test queries in an adaptive way. We also assume that some of the agents may be asymptomatic, and therefore cannot reveal their symptom onset time. Our goal is to find patient zero with as few contact and test queries as possible. We propose two local search algorithms for the SDCTF: the LS algorithm is more data-efficient, but can fail to find the true source if many asymptomatic agents are present, whereas the LS+ algorithm is more robust to asymptomatic agents. By simulations we show that both LS and LS+ outperform state of the art adaptive and non-adaptive source detection algorithms adapted to the SDCTF, even though these baseline algorithms have full access to the contact network. Extending the theory of random exponential trees, we analytically approximate the probability of success of the LS/ LS+ algorithms, and we show that our analytic results match the simulations. Finally, we benchmark our algorithms on the Data-driven COVID-19 Simulator developed by Lorch et al., which is the first time source detection algorithms are tested on such a complex dataset.

cs.SI↗

arXiv2021

On the robustness of the metric dimension of grid graphs to adding a single edge

The metric dimension (MD) of a graph is a combinatorial notion capturing the minimum number of landmark nodes needed to distinguish every pair of nodes in the graph based on graph distance. We study how much the MD can increase if we add a single edge to the graph. The extra edge can either be selected adversarially, in which case we are interested in the largest possible value that the MD can take, or uniformly at random, in which case we are interested in the distribution of the MD. The adversarial setting has already been studied by [Eroh et. al., 2015] for general graphs, who found an example where the MD doubles on adding a single edge. By constructing a different example, we show that this increase can be as large as exponential. However, we believe that such a large increase can occur only in specially constructed graphs, and that in most interesting graph families, the MD at most doubles on adding a single edge. We prove this for $d$-dimensional grid graphs, by showing that $2d$ appropriately chosen corners and the endpoints of the extra edge can distinguish every pair of nodes, no matter where the edge is added. For the special case of $d=2$, we show that it suffices to choose the four corners as landmarks. Finally, when the extra edge is sampled uniformly at random, we conjecture that the MD of 2-dimensional grids converges in probability to $3+\mathrm{Ber}(8/27)$, and we give an almost complete proof.

math.CO↗

arXiv2021

Sequential metric dimension for random graphs

In the localization game on a graph, the goal is to find a fixed but unknown target node $v^\star$ with the least number of distance queries possible. In the $j^{th}$ step of the game, the player queries a single node $v_j$ and receives, as an answer to their query, the distance between the nodes $v_j$ and $v^\star$. The sequential metric dimension (SMD) is the minimal number of queries that the player needs to guess the target with absolute certainty, no matter where the target is. The term SMD originates from the related notion of metric dimension (MD), which can be defined the same way as the SMD, except that the player's queries are non-adaptive. In this work, we extend the results of \cite{bollobas2012metric} on the MD of Erdős-Rényi graphs to the SMD. We find that, in connected Erdős-Rényi graphs, the MD and the SMD are a constant factor apart. For the lower bound we present a clean analysis by combining tools developed for the MD and a novel coupling argument. For the upper bound we show that a strategy that greedily minimizes the number of candidate targets in each step uses asymptotically optimal queries in Erdős-Rényi graphs. Connections with source localization, binary search on graphs and the birthday problem are discussed.

math.CO↗

arXiv2021

Switchover phenomenon induced by epidemic seeding on geometric networks

It is a fundamental question in disease modelling how the initial seeding of an epidemic, spreading over a network, determines its final outcome. Research in this topic has primarily concentrated on finding the seed configuration which infects the most individuals. Although these optimal configurations give insight into how the initial state affects the outcome of an epidemic, they are unlikely to occur in real life. In this paper we identify two important seeding scenarios, both motivated by historical data, that reveal a new complex phenomenon. In one scenario, the seeds are concentrated on the central nodes of a network, while in the second, they are spread uniformly in the population. Comparing the final size of the epidemic started from these two initial conditions through data-driven and synthetic simulations on real and modelled geometric metapopulation networks, we find evidence for a switchover phenomenon: When the basic reproduction number $R_0$ is close to its critical value, more individuals become infected in the first seeding scenario, but for larger values of $R_0$, the second scenario is more dangerous. We find that the switchover phenomenon is amplified by the geometric nature of the underlying network, and confirm our results via mathematically rigorous proofs, by mapping the network epidemic processes to bond percolation. Our results expand on the previous finding that in case of a single seed, the first scenario is always more dangerous, and further our understanding why the sizes of consecutive waves can differ even if their epidemic characters are similar.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2021

The metric dimension of critical Galton-Watson trees and linear preferential attachment trees

The metric dimension of a graph $G$ is the minimal size of a subset $R$ of vertices of $G$ that, upon reporting their graph distance from a distingished (source) vertex $v^\star$, enable unique identification of the source vertex $v^\star$ among all possible vertices of $G$. In this paper we show a Law of Large Numbers (LLN) for the metric dimension of some classes of trees: critical Galton-Watson trees conditioned to have size $n$, and growing general linear preferential attachment trees. The former class includes uniform random trees, the latter class includes Yule-trees (also called random recursive trees), $m$-ary increasing trees, binary search trees, and positive linear preferential attachment trees. In all these cases, we are able to identify the limiting constant in the LLN explicitly. Our result relies on the insight that the metric dimension can be related to subtree properties, and hence we can make use of the powerful fringe-tree literature developed by Aldous and Janson et al.

math.PR↗

arXiv2015

Griffiths phases and localization in hierarchical modular networks

We study variants of hierarchical modular network models suggested by Kaiser and Hilgetag [Frontiers in Neuroinformatics, 4 (2010) 8] to model functional brain connectivity, using extensive simulations and quenched mean-field theory (QMF), focusing on structures with a connection probability that decays exponentially with the level index. Such networks can be embedded in two-dimensional Euclidean space. We explore the dynamic behavior of the contact process (CP) and threshold models on networks of this kind, including hierarchical trees. While in the small-world networks originally proposed to model brain connectivity, the topological heterogeneities are not strong enough to induce deviations from mean-field behavior, we show that a Griffiths phase can emerge under reduced connection probabilities, approaching the percolation threshold. In this case the topological dimension of the networks is finite, and extended regions of bursty, power-law dynamics are observed. Localization in the steady state is also shown via QMF. We investigate the effects of link asymmetry and coupling disorder, and show that localization can occur even in small-world networks with high connectivity in case of link disorder.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2011

Simulation of 1+1 dimensional surface growth and lattices gases using GPUs

Restricted solid on solid surface growth models can be mapped onto binary lattice gases. We show that efficient simulation algorithms can be realized on GPUs either by CUDA or by OpenCL programming. We consider a deposition/evaporation model following Kardar-Parisi-Zhang growth in 1+1 dimensions related to the Asymmetric Simple Exclusion Process and show that for sizes, that fit into the shared memory of GPUs one can achieve the maximum parallelization speedup ~ x100 for a Quadro FX 5800 graphics card with respect to a single CPU of 2.67 GHz). This permits us to study the effect of quenched columnar disorder, requiring extremely long simulation times. We compare the CUDA realization with an OpenCL implementation designed for processor clusters via MPI. A two-lane traffic model with randomized turning points is also realized and the dynamical behavior has been investigated.

physics.comp-ph↗