The contact process on scale-free geometric random graphs

Abstract: We study the contact process on a class of geometric random graphs with scale-free degree distribution, defined on a Poisson point process on $\mathbb{R}^d$. This class includes the age-dependent random connection model and the soft Boolean model. In the ultrasmall regime of these random graphs we provide exact asymptotics for the non-extinction probability when the rate of infection spread is small and show for a finite version of these graphs that the extinction time is of exponential order in the size of the graph.