| Summary: | Recent works have shown that the contact process running on the top of highly heterogeneous random networks is described by the heterogeneous mean-field theory. However, some important aspects such as the transition point and strong corrections to the finite-size scaling observed in simulations are not quantitatively reproduced in this theory. We develop a heterogeneous pair-approximation, the simplest mean-field approach that takes into account dynamical correlations, for the contact process. The transition points obtained in this theory are in very good agreement with simulations. The proximity with a simple homogeneous pair-approximation is elicited showing that the transition point in successive homogeneous cluster approximations moves away from the simulation results. We show that the critical exponents of the heterogeneous pair-approximation in the infinite-size limit are the same as those of the one-vertex theory. However, excellent matches with simulations, for a wide range of network sizes, are obtained when the sub-leading finite-size corrections given by the new theory are explicitly taken into account. The present approach can be suited to dynamical processes on networks in general providing a profitable strategy to analytically assess and fine-tune theoretical corrections.
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