Bounds on $R_0$ and final epidemic size when the next-generation matrix $M$ is only partially known
Abstract
We study a multitype SIR epidemic model where individuals are categorized into different types, and where infection spread is characterized by a next-generation matrix with community fractions for the different types of individuals. We analyse two key quantities: the basic reproduction number and the final epidemic outcome of the different types . We consider the situation where is only partly known, through the row sums or the column sums , and treat both a general and the special but common situation where is proportional to a contact matrix satisfying detailed balance. For a general , which is partially observed through or , we obtain sharp upper and lower bounds of and , but for the case where satisfies detailed balance the problem is harder: our obtained bounds for are narrower than the general case but still not sharp, and bounds for the final size are only obtained when there are two types of individual.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2602.23885,
title = {Bounds on $R_0$ and final epidemic size when the next-generation matrix $M$ is only partially known},
author = {Andrea Bizzotto and Frank Ball and Tom Britton},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.23885},
year = {2026}
}