Gamma–distributed transmission memory in a reaction–diffusion epidemic model with nonlinear incidence

We extend the delayed reaction-diffusion SI model with nonlinear incidence proposed by Song et al. by replacing the fixed transmission lag with weak and strong gamma-distributed memory kernels. Because the model has no exposed compartment, the memory term is interpreted phenomenologically as a distributed timing of transmission-related effects of past infectious states rather than as an explicit latent-stage mechanism. Using the same parameter set adopted by Song et al., we show that the distributed-memory models have a stability structure that is qualitatively different from that of the discrete-delay model. For the spatially homogeneous mode, both gamma kernels exhibit a small stabilising spectral Hopf crossing at a mean memory time near 0.08. The discrete-delay model has a comparable small stabilising crossing but, in addition, a much larger destabilising crossing near τ=1.335. Consequently, at the nominal values 1.2 and 1.6 used in the reference simulations, the gamma models converge to the selected endemic equilibrium, whereas the discrete-delay model crosses into an oscillatory regime. The first spatial mode is different: for the gamma formulations its modal constant term is negative for every positive memory rate, so this mode is unstable for every positive mean-memory value. We therefore interpret this behavior as a memory-independent spatial-mode instability, distinct from both a memory-induced Hopf crossing and a classical Turing instability.