Duality for Some Models of Epidemic Spreading

We examine three non-conservative interacting particle systems in one dimension modeling epidemic spreading: the diffusive contact process (DCP), a model that we introduce and call generalized diffusive contact process (GDCP), and the susceptible-infectious-recovered (SIR) model. For each system, we establish duality relations through an analytical approach. As an application, we provide a new expression of the correlation functions for the steady state of the finite volume DCP and GDCP in contact with boundary reservoirs. We explicitly compute the one point correlation function of the steady state of a small sized DCP, and for arbitrary size in a particular setting of the GDCP. For the infinite SIR model, the duality relation obtained yields an explicit expression of the time evolution of some specific correlation functions, describing the time decay of the sizes of chains of susceptible individuals.