On a class of nonlocal SIR models

Abstract

We revisit the classic susceptible–infected–recovered (SIR) epidemic model and one of its recently developed nonlocal variations. We introduce several new approaches to derive exact analytical solutions in the classical situation and analyze the corresponding effective approximations in the nonlocal setting. An interesting new feature of the nonlocal models, compared with the classic SIR model, is the appearance of multiple peak solutions for the infected population. We provide several rigorous results on the existence and non-existence of peak solutions with sharp asymptotics.