Emergent Higher-Order Structure from Fast Adaptive Networks

Abstract: We study adaptive network models in which coupling weights evolve on a fast time scale relative to the phase dynamics of the nodes. Using Geometric Singular Perturbation Theory (GSPT), we prove that, although the microscopic system is strictly pairwise, the effective slow dynamics on the invariant slow manifold can exhibit genuinely higher-order structure. More precisely, Fenichel reduction produces explicit $O(\varepsilon)$ triplet terms in the reduced phase dynamics. In addition, we give a rigorous criterion ensuring that these terms are irreducible, in the sense that the reduced vector field does not admit a pairwise decomposition in node coordinates. We derive the first-order slow-manifold correction explicitly, formulate the irreducibility criterion via mixed second derivatives, and verify it for the adaptive Kuramoto phase oscillator model. The results show that the class of pairwise-coupled fast--slow adaptive network systems is not closed under slow-manifold reduction.