Hyperedge overlap drives explosive collective behaviors in systems with higher-order interactions

Abstract: Recent studies have shown that novel collective behaviors emerge in complex systems due to the presence of higher-order interactions. However, how the collective behavior of a system is influenced by the microscopic organization of its higher-order interactions remains still unexplored. In this Letter, we introduce a way to quantify the overlap among the hyperedges of a higher-order network, and we show that real-world systems exhibit different levels of hyperedge overlap. We then study models of complex contagion and synchronization of phase oscillators, finding that hyperedge overlap plays a universal role in determining the collective dynamics of very different systems. Our results demostrate that the presence of higher-order interactions alone does not guarantee abrupt transitions. Rather, explosivity and bistability require a microscopic organization of the structure with a low value of hyperedge overlap.