First-order phase transitions in outbreaks of co-infectious diseases and the extended general epidemic process

In co-infections, positive feedback between multiple diseases can accelerate outbreaks. In a recent letter Chen, Ghanbarnejad, Cai, and Grassberger (CGCG) introduced a spatially homogeneous mean-field model system for such co-infections, and studied this system numerically with focus on the possible existence of discontinuous phase transitions. We show that their model coincides in mean-field theory with the homogenous limit of the extended general epidemic process (EGEP). Studying the latter analytically, we argue that the discontinuous transition observed by CGCG is basically a spinodal phase transition and not a first-order transition with phase-coexistence. We derive the conditions for this spinodal transition along with predictions for important quantities such as the magnitude of the discontinuity. We also shed light on a true first-order transition with phase-coexistence by discussing the EGEP with spatial inhomogeneities.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Scaling Exponents for a Monkey on a Tree: Fractal Dimensions of Randomly Branched Polymers

We study asymptotic properties of diffusion and other transport processes (including self-avoiding walks and electrical conduction) on large, randomly branched polymers using renormalized dynamical field theory. We focus on the swollen phase and the collapse transition, where loops in the polymers are irrelevant. Here the asymptotic statistics of the polymers is that of lattice trees, and diffusion on them is reminiscent of the climbing of a monkey on a tree. We calculate a set of universal scaling exponents including the diffusion exponent and the fractal dimension of the minimal path to two-loop order and, where available, compare them to numerical results

Comment on ``Critical behavior of a two-species reaction-diffusion problem''

In a recent paper, de Freitas et al. [Phys. Rev. E 61, 6330 (2000)] presented simulational results for the critical exponents of the two-species reaction-diffusion system A + B -> 2B and B -> A in dimension d = 1. In particular, the correlation length exponent was found as \nu = 2.21(5) in contradiction to the exact relation \nu = 2/d. In this Comment, the symmetry arguments leading to exact critical exponents for the universality class of this reaction-diffusion system are concisely reconsidered