The spread of disease through a physical-contact network and the spread of
information about the disease on a communication network are two intimately
related dynamical processes. We investigate the asymmetrical interplay between
the two types of spreading dynamics, each occurring on its own layer, by
focusing on the two fundamental quantities underlying any spreading process:
epidemic threshold and the final infection ratio. We find that an epidemic
outbreak on the contact layer can induce an outbreak on the communication
layer, and information spreading can effectively raise the epidemic threshold.
When structural correlation exists between the two layers, the information
threshold remains unchanged but the epidemic threshold can be enhanced, making
the contact layer more resilient to epidemic outbreak. We develop a physical
theory to understand the intricate interplay between the two types of spreading
dynamics.Comment: 29 pages, 14 figure
