Higher-Order Interactions in Complex Systems

Updated 1 December 2025

Higher-order interactions are multi-entity dependencies that extend beyond simple dyadic effects, modeled using hypergraphs, simplicial complexes, and pangraphs.
They employ advanced mathematical structures, such as adjacency tensors and role-specific representations, to quantify complex, non-pairwise relationships.
Studying these interactions improves inference, prediction, and control in diverse fields like neuroscience, ecology, and social systems by revealing emergent collective dynamics.

Higher-order interactions refer to multi-entity dependencies in complex systems that cannot be decomposed into sums of pairwise (dyadic) effects. They are fundamental in systems as diverse as neurobiology, ecology, networked dynamics, epidemiology, and social or information systems, where collective phenomena emerge from the simultaneous participation of three or more units. Mathematically, higher-order interactions are naturally modeled by structures such as hypergraphs, simplicial complexes, and pangraphs, which generalize the traditional graph-theoretic framework. These representations enable formalization of non-dyadic connections, allow explicit encoding of the roles and strengths of interaction participants, and support the development of refined statistical, dynamical, and inferential tools. This article surveys the mathematical foundations, detection and inference methodologies, structural and dynamical implications, information-theoretic and statistical considerations, and challenges associated with higher-order interactions in modern research.

1. Mathematical Representations of Higher-Order Interactions

Higher-order interactions require mathematical objects beyond pairwise graphs. The central frameworks are:

Hypergraph: An ordered pair $H = (V, E)$ , where $V$ is a set of nodes and $E$ is a family of hyperedges, each a nonempty subset of $V$ (with |e|≥2), representing genuine multi-way relations (Battiston et al., 2021, Bian et al., 8 Nov 2024).
Simplicial Complex: A hypergraph closed under the subset operation. If a simplex (hyperedge) is present, so are all its subfaces; e.g., any triangle simultaneously encodes its contained edges and nodes. This structure is critical for discrete topology and invariants beyond just hyperedge lists (Battiston et al., 2021, Zhang et al., 2022).
Adjacency Tensors: For a k-order hyperedge, one defines adjacency tensors $A_{i_1 \ldots i_k}$ , which explicitly integrate the k-body connectivities inaccessible to adjacency matrices.
Pangraph: A recent formalism, the pangraph, is a quadruple $(V, E, w, I)$ , where $w : V \times E \to \mathbb{R}$ encodes the real-valued roles or strengths of vertex participation in an interaction. Pangraphs generalize hypergraphs, directed and undirected, and enable asymmetric, role-dependent, and quantitative HOIs. The incidence multilayer digraph (Levi digraph) encodes this via a block adjacency matrix supporting all classical centrality and flow algorithms (Iskrzyński et al., 14 Feb 2025).
Stepwise Closure and Reduction: To paper whether higher-order components are essential, n-reduced graphs replace each hyperedge of size $k > n$ with all its n-sized subsets. The resulting structure interpolates between the full hypergraph and its pairwise projection, enabling quantification of information loss at each truncation order (Bian et al., 8 Nov 2024).

2. Detection, Inference, and Quantification of Higher-Order Dependencies

Detection and quantification of HOIs are central to both empirical and theoretical research:

Functional Connectivity and Random Walk Embeddings: In brain networks, higher-order associations are detected by random walk node embeddings (node2vec) (Khodabandehloo et al., 9 Jun 2024), which encode multi-step indirect relationships not captured by dyadic FC matrices. The structure and choice of underlying first-order edges (Pearson, partial correlation, tangent-space embedding) critically affect the physiological fidelity and embedding quality.
Information-Theoretic Approaches:
- Model-Free Interactions (MFI): MFI are Möbius inversions on the Boolean cube of variables' pointwise surprisal. They generalize mutual information to higher orders, coinciding with Ising-like Hamiltonian coefficients in maximum-entropy models. MFIs can distinguish logical structures (e.g., XOR and dyadic vs. triadic parity) and are more sensitive than classic Shannon measures (Jansma, 2022).
- Targeted Learning: Non-parametric statistical frameworks estimate all-order symmetric interactions in equilibrium, defining additive and multiplicative measures via finite differences or odds ratios over the conditional distribution, respectively, and avoiding model misspecification (Beentjes et al., 2020).
Filtering by Hyperedge Size: Empirical hypergraph datasets stratified by interaction size exhibit order-dependent structure. Filtering reveals scale-specific centrality, assortativity, connectivity, and community structure that aggregation erases. Size-dependent filtering thus prevents Simpson's paradox and supports multiscale system diagnosis (Landry et al., 2023).
Temporal Hypergraphs: Higher-order temporal networks encode time-ordered multi-entity events (e.g., face-to-face group interactions), enabling analysis of persistence, burstiness, memory, and transition rates between order-k events and their temporal reinforcement (Cencetti et al., 2020, Jung-Muller et al., 2023).

3. Dynamical Consequences and Theoretical Implications

HOIs induce novel regimes and phase transitions in dynamical systems:

Collective Behavior: Clique complexes incorporating triadic or higher k-body interactions modify the collective regimes available to networked oscillators (generalized Kuramoto models, swarmalators, Ising models). Triadic couplings can enhance or suppress synchronizability, induce abrupt (explosive or first-order) transitions, support multistability, and create rich phenomena such as heteroclinic cycles and slow switching not possible in dyadic settings (Battiston et al., 2021, Zhang et al., 2022, Anwar et al., 2023, León et al., 2023, Wang et al., 15 Oct 2025, Skardal et al., 2021, Robiglio et al., 29 Nov 2024).
Optimization and Control: Embedding HOIs in a composite Laplacian (e.g., as convex combinations of k-simplex Laplacians) alters the spectral properties, thus broadening or contracting the set of optimizable states ("dynamical range"). Constrained or unconstrained optimization in the Synchrony Alignment Function yields qualitatively different optima as higher-order weights are tuned (Skardal et al., 2021).
Tipping Cascades and Instability: Multistable systems subjected to HOIs exhibit new bifurcation phenomena; higher-order couplings can lower the threshold for cascades, trigger tip-induced pattern formation, and even shift the route to cascade from a saddle-node to a supercritical pitchfork, with implications for resilience and mitigation (Ghosh et al., 9 Sep 2025).
Ecological Stability and Biodiversity: In Lotka-Volterra models and their generalizations, inclusion of $\beta_{ijk}$ terms can stabilize large multi-species ecosystems, generate realistic species abundance distributions, and support high-diversity steady states, periodic orbits, or chaotic attractors dependent on the order and sign-structure of HOIs (Kang et al., 29 Jul 2025, Sidhom et al., 17 Sep 2024).
Evolutionary Game Dynamics: For hypernetworks supporting m-player interactions, the critical b/c threshold for the emergence of cooperation is reduced compared to the pairwise case in structured populations. As m increases, especially at large system size, cooperativity is dramatically favored relative to panmictic analogs—a reversal of classical intuition (Guo et al., 11 Jan 2025).

4. Information Structure and Universality

Information-theoretic formalism reveals deep structure in higher-order dependencies:

Möbius Inversion and Lattice Theory: Both mutual information and additive/multiplicative model-free interactions are Möbius inverses over the Boolean algebra of variable subsets, enabling the partition of dependency into irreducible order-k components (Jansma, 2022).
Synergy and Logical Structure Detection: MFIs and their duals can distinguish systems (e.g., logical gates, triadic vs. dyadic distributions) indistinguishable by classic Shannon theory.
Universality and Coarse-Graining: Mesoscopic field theories of HOI-induced processes (e.g., higher-order contagion) demonstrate that at large scales, higher-order facilitation often renormalizes to effective pairwise facilitation, governed by the universality class and symmetries (e.g., directed percolation class for epidemic processes), but with modified effective coefficients. Critical phenomena and finite-size scaling persist (or are rounded out) according to spectral dimension (Meloni et al., 25 Feb 2025).

5. Structural Sensitivity, Representation, and Practical Methodologies

Stepwise Reduction and Task-Specific Representation: The impact of discarding higher-order interactions varies by domain and task. Systematic reduction (n-reduced graphs) allows precise attribution of performance drops to loss of given orders, revealing when HOIs are essential for prediction, inference, or control (Bian et al., 8 Nov 2024).
Temporal and Memory Effects: In higher-order temporal data, predictive models leveraging cross-order memory consistently outperform pairwise baselines in multiway event forecasting. Recency, sub- and super-hyperlink structure, and decaying memory weights are key determinants of predictive success (Jung-Muller et al., 2023).
Role-Dependent and Asymmetric Quantification: Pangraph formalism allows direct quantification of asymmetric and role-specific contributions to system-level centrality and influence, supporting fine-tuned ecological, biochemical, or social network analysis (Iskrzyński et al., 14 Feb 2025).

6. Challenges, Limitations, and Open Questions

Inference and Causality: Moving beyond pairwise inference, robust identification of genuine HOIs in empirical datasets remains challenging. Null-models, model selection, and statistical filtering approaches are under development, with pressing demands for dynamic, causal, and temporal generalizations (Battiston et al., 2021).
Optimal Filtering and Multiscale Decomposition: Selecting the appropriate interaction order(s) and filtering regime for a given scientific question is nontrivial and often requires domain expertise or systematic cross-validation (Landry et al., 2023).
Universality and Emergence: Open theoretical questions persist regarding the universality classes of certain HOI-induced transitions, criteria for first-order explosivity, and links to network topology and degree correlation structure (Zhang et al., 2022, Robiglio et al., 29 Nov 2024).
Computational and Sampling Limitations: Estimation of high-order interactions is constrained by the exponential growth in configuration space ("curse of dimensionality"), necessitating either careful hypothesis selection, conditional independence exploitation, or methodological advances in high-dimensional statistics (Beentjes et al., 2020).
Dynamic Evolution of HOI Structure: Adaptive and co-evolving higher-order structures, especially in networks with feedback between dynamics and topology, pose unresolved modeling and inference challenges (Battiston et al., 2021).

7. Empirical Impact and Applications

Higher-order interactions underpin phenomena observed across domains:

Neuroscience: Multiway correlations shape functional brain connectivity, pattern completion, and synchrony—evident through homotopic connectivity analysis and random-walk embeddings on partial correlation graphs (Khodabandehloo et al., 9 Jun 2024).
Ecology: HOIs stabilize biodiversity, generate realistic species abundance distributions, and prevent community collapse against variable interaction strengths (Kang et al., 29 Jul 2025, Sidhom et al., 17 Sep 2024).
Social Systems: The higher-order structure of group formation, reinforcement, burstiness, and cascade dynamics is ubiquitous in social, communication, and collaboration networks (Cencetti et al., 2020, Ghosh et al., 9 Sep 2025).
Evolutionary Dynamics: The presence of multiway interaction structure enables enhanced cooperation and resilience in large-scale populations (Guo et al., 11 Jan 2025).

A plausible implication is that the systematic inclusion, representation, and quantification of higher-order interactions are crucial for accurate modeling, robust inference, and reliable prediction of emergent phenomena in complex networks. Methods that fail to account for these non-dyadic dependencies risk misestimating stability, control thresholds, and the potential for abrupt transitions or cooperative behavior.

References:

(Khodabandehloo et al., 9 Jun 2024): From First-order to Higher-order Interactions: Enhanced Representation of Homotopic Functional Connectivity through Control of Intervening Variables
(Bian et al., 8 Nov 2024): Beyond Pairwise Interactions: Unveiling the Role of Higher-Order Interactions via Stepwise Reduction
(Iskrzyński et al., 14 Feb 2025): Pangraphs as models of higher-order interactions
(Meloni et al., 25 Feb 2025): Higher-order contagion processes in 1.99 dimensions
(Kang et al., 29 Jul 2025): Self-organized biodiversity and species abundance distribution patterns in ecosystems with higher-order interactions
(Sidhom et al., 17 Sep 2024): Higher-order interactions in random Lotka-Volterra communities
(Bao, 2023): Higher-order interactions in complex systems
(Battiston et al., 2021): The physics of higher-order interactions in complex systems
(Skardal et al., 2021): Higher-order interactions improve optimal collective dynamics on networks
(Zhang et al., 2022): Higher-order interactions shape collective dynamics differently in hypergraphs and simplicial complexes
(Cencetti et al., 2020): Temporal properties of higher-order interactions in social networks
(Landry et al., 2023): Filtering higher-order datasets
(León et al., 2023): Higher-order interactions induce anomalous transitions to synchrony
(Ghosh et al., 9 Sep 2025): Effect of higher-order interactions on tipping cascades on complex networks
(Guo et al., 11 Jan 2025): Evolutionary game dynamics for higher-order interactions
(Anwar et al., 2023): Collective dynamics of swarmalators with higher-order interactions
(Robiglio et al., 29 Nov 2024): Higher-order Ising model on hypergraphs
(Jansma, 2022): Higher-Order Interactions and Their Duals Reveal Synergy and Logical Dependence beyond Shannon-Information
(Beentjes et al., 2020): Higher-order interactions in statistical physics and machine learning: A model-independent solution to the inverse problem at equilibrium
(Jung-Muller et al., 2023): Higher-Order Temporal Network Prediction