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Updated: Aug 6, 2026
06:48
The HoneyComb Paradigm for Research on Collective Human Behavior
Published on: January 19, 2019
Higher-order contagion processes in 3.99 dimensions
Sandro Meloni1,2,3, Andrea Gabrielli2,4,5, Pablo Villegas2,6
1CSIC, Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Physics and Complex Systems (IFISC), -UIB, E-07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
Physical Review. E
|July 24, 2026
Summary
Higher-order interactions in contagion processes are equivalent to pairwise mechanisms. Classical field theories capture phase transitions by considering network topology and noise.
Area of Science:
- Complex systems
- Statistical physics
- Network science
Background:
- Higher-order interactions offer a new framework for understanding complex contagion dynamics.
- A key challenge is to reconcile these interactions with the physics of critical phenomena.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the connection between higher-order interactions and pairwise mechanisms in contagion processes.
- To understand the role of network topology and noise in phase transitions within these systems.
Main Methods:
- A mesoscopic field-theoretic Langevin description was employed.
- Analysis focused on formal equivalences and the influence of network spectral dimension.
Main Results:
- Pairwise mechanisms (facilitation, thresholding) are formally equivalent to higher-order interactions.
- Coarse-grained pairwise interactions dictate the simplicial contact process.
- Network spectral dimension governs the interplay between noise and topology.
Conclusions:
- Classical field theories, incorporating model symmetries and network dimensionality, effectively describe phase transitions in various networks.
- This work bridges the gap between higher-order interaction frameworks and established physics principles for contagion processes.
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