Higher-order contagion processes in 3.99 dimensions

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/98rn-9x9q
• ArXiv number: 2502.18004

Higher-order interactions have recently emerged as a promising framework for describing new dynamical phenomena in heterogeneous contagion processes. However, a fundamental open question is how to understand their contribution from the perspective of the physics of critical phenomena. Based on a mesoscopic field-theoretic Langevin description, we show that (i) pairwise mechanisms such as facilitation or thresholding are formally equivalent to higher-order ones, (ii) pairwise interactions at coarse-grained scales govern the simplicial contact process and, (iii) the interplay between noise and topology is determined by the network spectral dimension. In short, we demonstrate that classical field theories, rooted in model symmetries and/or network dimensionality, capture the nature of the phase transition in real and synthetic networks.

• Article complet

Related research projects

CoSASTI-CSIC

Complex Systems Approach to Social and Technological Interactions

I.P.: Tobias Galla, Jose Javier Ramasco

Human interactions have traditionally been the subject of the social sciences, separate from the natural sciences. The trend towards quantitative and computational social sciences is recent, and the theory of complex systems …

MdM-IFISC-2

Maria de Maeztu 2023-2026

I.P.: Ernesto Estrada, Ingo Fischer, Emilio Hernández-García, Rosa Lopez, Claudio Mirasso, Jose Javier Ramasco, Raúl Toral, Roberta Zambrini

After 15 years of its existence, IFISC can point to a proven track record of impactful research. The previous 2018-2022 MdM award has significantly enhanced the institute's capabilities, as demonstrated by an …

APASOS

A Physics approach to sociotechnical systems: from theory to data analysis.

I.P.: Tobias Galla, Maxi San Miguel, Raúl Toral

APASOS objective is to use mathematical and computational methods combined with data and physics thinking to model complex socio-technical systems. APASOS is organized into two workpackages (WP). WP 1 focuses on models …