Best Paper Prize 2022 from the Journal of Physics A

Martin Kröger from the Polymer Physics group (D-MATL), together with Prof. Dr. Reinhard Schlickeiser from external page Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, has won the Best Paper Prize 2022 of the prestigious Journal of Physics A. The paper published in November 2020 "Analytical solution of the SIR-model for the temporal evolution of epidemics. Part A: time-independent reproduction factor" (M Kröger and R Schlickeiser 2020 J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 53, 505601) was rated as outstanding by reviewers in all points of criticism.

In the award-winning work, the equations of the SIR model for describing the temporal development of epidemics are analytically solved more comprehensively and generally than before. The SIR model, known since 1927, divides persons in a population into three pigeonholes S, I, R: S denotes the percentage of infectious persons, I the percentage of infected persons, and R the percentage of recovered/or deceased persons. The generally time-dependent infection rates a(t) and the recovery rate μ(t) determine the transition rates between the drawers S → I and I → R, respectively.

In the award-winning paper, they succeeded for the first time in analytically solving the equations of the SIR model for arbitrary time dependencies of the infection rate a(t). The analytical solutions allow precise predictions of the course of corona outbreaks by different covid-19 mutants such as maximum hospitalization and mortality rates and incidences as shown in the follow-up work of both authors.

The awarded work is freely accessible and can be viewed and downloaded on the external page IOPscience website or the ETH Rearch Collection.