Dice Question Streamline Icon: https://streamlinehq.com

Counterexample to the "all new infection terms" choice in NGM

Construct a counterexample where defining the NGM "new infections" matrix F by collecting all positive-sign, nonlinear infection terms fails to satisfy the conditions of the NGM theorem of Diekmann–Heesterbeek–Metz and van den Driessche–Watmough, thereby demonstrating limits of the "all" choice.

Information Square Streamline Icon: https://streamlinehq.com

Background

The authors adopt a unique, algorithmic choice for F by including all positive new infection terms, which empirically worked in their examples. However, classical NGM theory does not mandate a unique decomposition, and the "all" choice may not always meet its technical conditions.

A concrete counterexample would delineate the scope of the "all" choice and guide refinements of heuristic NGM constructions.

References

Note that it is an open problem to provide a counterexample where the "all" choice doesn't satisfy the conditions of [DHM90, VdDW02, VdDW08].

Stability in Reaction Network Models via an Extension of the Next Generation Matrix Method (2411.11867 - Avram et al., 3 Nov 2024) in Remark 3, Section 2