Prolonged hysteresis in the Kuramoto model with inertia and higher-order interactions

The inclusion of inertia in the Kuramoto model has long been reported to change the nature of a phase transition, providing a fertile ground to model the dynamical behaviors of interacting units. More recently, higher-order interactions have been realized as essential for the functioning of real-world complex systems ranging from the brain to disease spreading. Yet analytical insights to decipher the role of inertia with higher-order interactions remain challenging. Here, we study the Kuramoto model with inertia on simplicial complexes, merging two research domains. We develop an analytical framework in a mean-field setting using self-consistent equations to describe the steady-state behavior, which reveals a prolonged hysteresis in the synchronization profile. Inertia and triadic interaction strength exhibit isolated influence on system dynamics by predominantly governing, respectively, the forward and backward transition points. This paper sets a paradigm to deepen our understanding of real-world complex systems such as power grids modeled as the Kuramoto model with inertia.