Two-strain epidemic model involving fractional derivative with Mittag-Leffler kernel

In the present study, the fractional version with respect to the Atangana-Baleanu fractional derivative operator in the caputo sense (ABC) of the two-strain epidemic mathematical model involving two vaccinations has extensively been analyzed. Furthermore, using the fixed-point theory, it has been shown that the solution of the proposed fractional version of the mathematical model does not only exist but is also the unique solution under some conditions. The original mathematical model consists of six first order nonlinear ordinary differential equations, thereby requiring a numerical treatment for getting physical interpretations. Likewise, its fractional version is not possible to be solved by any existing analytical method. Therefore, in order to get the observations regarding the output of the model, it has been solved using a newly developed convergent numerical method based on the Atangana-Baleanu fractional derivative operator in the caputo sense. To believe upon the results obtained, the fractional order alpha has been allowed to vary between (0, 1], whereupon the physical observations match with those obtained in the classical case, but the fractional model has persisted all the memory effects making the model much more suitable when presented in the structure of fractional order derivatives for ABC. Finally, the fractional forward Euler method in the classical caputo sense has been used to illustrate the better performance of the numerical method obtained via the Atangana-Baleanu fractional derivative operator in the caputo sense. Published by AIP Publishing.