Solitary states in spiking oscillators with higher-order interactions

Abstract: We study a system of globally coupled FitzHugh-Nagumo oscillators, showing that the presence of higher-order interactions affects the character of the transition between synchronous and asynchronous states. In particular, we demonstrate that, around the synchronization transition, solitary states emerge due to the presence of second-order interactions. In difference to the phenomenology observed in systems of phase oscillators, we show that, at low coupling strengths, solitary states appear for both transition directions, whereas for higher couplings they only occur in the forward direction, with the backwards one characterized by explosive desynchronization.