Disentangling the Role of Heterogeneity and Hyperedge Overlap in Explosive Contagion on Higher-Order Networks

Federico Malizia; Andrés Guzmán; Iacopo Iacopini; István Z. Kiss

doi:10.1103/z3d5-94zb

Disentangling the Role of Heterogeneity and Hyperedge Overlap in Explosive Contagion on Higher-Order Networks

Federico Malizia^*
, Andrés Guzmán
, Iacopo Iacopini
, István Z. Kiss^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

We introduce group-based compartmental modeling (GBCM), a mean-field framework for irreversible contagion in higher-order networks that captures structural heterogeneity and correlations across group sizes. Validated through numerical simulations, GBCM analytically disentangles the role of each interaction order to the global epidemic dynamics, revealing how heterogeneity and inter-order correlations jointly shape the onset of outbreaks and the emergence of explosive dynamics. Crucially, we show that inter-order correlations drive the system along distinct pathways to explosive contagion - emerging universally across both irreversible and reversible spreading processes.

Original language	English
Article number	207401
Number of pages	8
Journal	Physical Review Letters
Volume	135
Issue number	20
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/z3d5-94zb
State	Published - 14 Nov 2025
Externally published	Yes

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title = "Disentangling the Role of Heterogeneity and Hyperedge Overlap in Explosive Contagion on Higher-Order Networks",

abstract = "We introduce group-based compartmental modeling (GBCM), a mean-field framework for irreversible contagion in higher-order networks that captures structural heterogeneity and correlations across group sizes. Validated through numerical simulations, GBCM analytically disentangles the role of each interaction order to the global epidemic dynamics, revealing how heterogeneity and inter-order correlations jointly shape the onset of outbreaks and the emergence of explosive dynamics. Crucially, we show that inter-order correlations drive the system along distinct pathways to explosive contagion - emerging universally across both irreversible and reversible spreading processes.",

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AU - Iacopini, Iacopo

AU - Kiss, István Z.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2025 authors. Published by the American Physical Society. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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AB - We introduce group-based compartmental modeling (GBCM), a mean-field framework for irreversible contagion in higher-order networks that captures structural heterogeneity and correlations across group sizes. Validated through numerical simulations, GBCM analytically disentangles the role of each interaction order to the global epidemic dynamics, revealing how heterogeneity and inter-order correlations jointly shape the onset of outbreaks and the emergence of explosive dynamics. Crucially, we show that inter-order correlations drive the system along distinct pathways to explosive contagion - emerging universally across both irreversible and reversible spreading processes.

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Disentangling the Role of Heterogeneity and Hyperedge Overlap in Explosive Contagion on Higher-Order Networks

Abstract (may include machine translation)

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