Abstract of “When Zombies Attack!: Mathematical Modelling of an Outbreak of Zombie Infection”

The purpose of this paper is to mathematically calculate the possible outcomes of a theoretical outbreak of zombie infection. Due to the fact that the mythical concept of a zombie can differ considerably, one specific type of undead had to be chosen. Accordingly, the type of zombie calculated in this model is the slow moving, cannibalistic and undead kind of zombie that spreads the infection through saliva. To calculate the prospects of human civilization which is attacked by zombies, one basic model was developed and was calculated similarly to usual infectious diseases. This model assumes three classes: the Susceptible (S), the Zombie (Z) and the Removed (R).  It then continues to clarify how S, Z and R interact with each other and uses Euler’s method to solve the equation. On this basis, different scenarios for the human civilization were modeled, such as latent infection, quarantine of the infected, treatment for the disease and impulsive eradication of the zombies. The only two cases in which the outcome for human civilization was not complete extermination, were the model with treatment and the impulsive eradication. However, the impulsive eradication was the only one to actually defeat the zombies, as the treatment only accomplished that a small group of humans could survive. Thus, the recommendation derived from this purely theoretical mathematical model is that humans would have to deal with the new zombies as quickly as possible to avoid human extinction.