Uniqueness of positive bounded entire solutions for the limiting epidemic equations

Under Assumptions~--, let R0>E[1γ]R_0 > \mathbb{E}\left[\frac{1}{\gamma_*}\right] and suppose that F(0)>0\overline{\mathfrak F}(0)>0. For functions x,y:RRx,y:\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}, the limiting equations are

y(t)=tλ(ts)x(s)y(s)ds,y(t)=\int_{-\infty}^{t}\overline{\lambda}(t-s)x(s)y(s)\,ds,

and

tE[exp(stγ(rs)y(r)dr)]x(s)y(s)ds=1.\int_{-\infty}^{t}\mathbb{E}\left[\exp\left(-\int_s^t\gamma(r-s)y(r)\,dr\right)\right]x(s)y(s)\,ds=1.

A solution is positive and bounded when both component functions are positive and bounded on R\mathbb{R}.

Uniqueness conjecture. The limiting system above has a unique positive and bounded solution on R\mathbb{R}.

This uniqueness statement is presented as an equivalent formulation of the convergence conjecture: uniqueness of the limiting entire solution would force all subsequential time-translation limits to equal the constant endemic equilibrium. The constant pair (1/R0,F)(1/R_0,\overline{\mathfrak F}_*) is known to solve the system, but uniqueness remains open.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Raphaël Forien, Guodong Pang, Étienne Pardoux and Arsene Brice Zotsa-Ngoufack, “Stochastic epidemic models with varying infectivity and waning immunity”, arXiv:2210.04667 (2025).

Progress summary

Never refreshed

Nothing recorded yet. Refresh searches the literature and the public web for attempts on this problem, and writes the first summary here.

Solutions 0

No solutions have been posted yet.