Reducibility of higher-order networks from dynamics

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Lucas, Maxime, Gallo, Luca, Ghavasieh, Arsham, Battiston, Federico, De Domenico, Manlio
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Lucas, Maxime
Gallo, Luca
Ghavasieh, Arsham
Battiston, Federico
De Domenico, Manlio
author_facet Lucas, Maxime
Gallo, Luca
Ghavasieh, Arsham
Battiston, Federico
De Domenico, Manlio
contents Empirical complex systems can be characterized not only by pairwise interactions, but also by higher-order (group) interactions influencing collective phenomena, from metabolic reactions to epidemics. Nevertheless, higher-order networks' apparent superior descriptive power -- compared to classical pairwise networks -- comes with a much increased model complexity and computational cost, challenging their application. Consequently, it is of paramount importance to establish a quantitative method to determine when such a modeling framework is advantageous with respect to pairwise models, and to which extent it provides a valuable description of empirical systems. Here, we propose an information-theoretic framework, accounting for how structure affect diffusion behaviors, quantifying the entropic cost and distinguishability of higher-order interactions to assess their reducibility to lower-order structures while preserving relevant functional information. Empirical analyses indicate that some systems retain essential higher-order structure, whereas in some technological and biological networks it collapses to pairwise interactions. With controlled randomization procedures, we investigate the role of nestedness and degree heterogeneity in this reducibility process. Our findings contribute to ongoing efforts to minimize the dimensionality of models for complex systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_08547
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Reducibility of higher-order networks from dynamics
Lucas, Maxime
Gallo, Luca
Ghavasieh, Arsham
Battiston, Federico
De Domenico, Manlio
Physics and Society
Statistical Mechanics
Empirical complex systems can be characterized not only by pairwise interactions, but also by higher-order (group) interactions influencing collective phenomena, from metabolic reactions to epidemics. Nevertheless, higher-order networks' apparent superior descriptive power -- compared to classical pairwise networks -- comes with a much increased model complexity and computational cost, challenging their application. Consequently, it is of paramount importance to establish a quantitative method to determine when such a modeling framework is advantageous with respect to pairwise models, and to which extent it provides a valuable description of empirical systems. Here, we propose an information-theoretic framework, accounting for how structure affect diffusion behaviors, quantifying the entropic cost and distinguishability of higher-order interactions to assess their reducibility to lower-order structures while preserving relevant functional information. Empirical analyses indicate that some systems retain essential higher-order structure, whereas in some technological and biological networks it collapses to pairwise interactions. With controlled randomization procedures, we investigate the role of nestedness and degree heterogeneity in this reducibility process. Our findings contribute to ongoing efforts to minimize the dimensionality of models for complex systems.
title Reducibility of higher-order networks from dynamics
topic Physics and Society
Statistical Mechanics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.08547