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Hypergraphs and simplicial complexes in focus: a roadmap for future research in higher-order interactions

Hypergraphs and simplicial complexes in focus: a roadmap for future research in higher-order interactions
Hypergraphs and simplicial complexes in focus: a roadmap for future research in higher-order interactions
Higher-order interactions are increasingly being recognized as fundamental to our understanding of complex systems, networks, and the development of the next generation of AI algorithms. However, modeling higher-order interactions requires us to go beyond graphs and networks, which can only encode pairwise interactions, and so demands a new theory. Hypergraphs and simplicial complexes (also called higher-order networks), which arise as natural mathematical representations of higher-order complex systems, are therefore attracting increasing attention. The mathematics of higher-order networks is already providing important insights, yet many fundamental mathematical questions remain unsolved; for instance, in spectral graph theory, discrete topology, and higher-order network dynamics. This roadmap summarizes the scientific discussions that took place on these topics between pure mathematicians, theoretical physicists, computer and network scientists at the Newton Institute Satellite meeting on ‘Hypergraphs: Theory and Applications’. We survey the current state-of-the-art in higher-order network research, and propose some trajectories for future research, including in areas such as extremal and spectral hypergraph theory, discrete topology, higher-order dynamics, higher-order machine learning, and applications in the brain and social sciences.
hypergraphs, simplicity complexes, higher-order interactions, triadic interactions
2632-072X
Abiad, Aida
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Arenas, Alex
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Backhausz, Ágnes
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Balogh, József
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Banerji, Christopher
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Barbarossa, Sergio
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Bianconi, Ginestra
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Bick, Christian
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Botnan, Magnus
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Carletti, Timoteo
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Cavallaro, Lucia
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Civilini, Andrea
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Gong, Xue
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Guo, Krystal
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Harrington, Heather
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Jost, Jürgen
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Krapivsky, P L
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Liò, Pietro
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Macarthur, Benjamin
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Mattsson, Carolina
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Mediano, Pedro
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Millan, Ana
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Mulas, Raffaella
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Patania, Alice
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Petri, Giovanni
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Rathilal, Cerene
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Sanchez-Garcia, Ruben J
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Scolamiero, Martina
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Schaub, Michael
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et al.
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Banerji, Christopher
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Botnan, Magnus
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Carletti, Timoteo
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Civilini, Andrea
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Gong, Xue
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Guo, Krystal
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Harrington, Heather
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Jost, Jürgen
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Krapivsky, P L
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Liò, Pietro
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Macarthur, Benjamin
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Mattsson, Carolina
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Mediano, Pedro
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Millan, Ana
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Mulas, Raffaella
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Patania, Alice
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Rathilal, Cerene
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Sanchez-Garcia, Ruben J
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Scolamiero, Martina
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Schaub, Michael
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Sun, Hanlin
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Tian, Yu
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Vaccarino, Francesco
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Xia, Kelin
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Abiad, Aida, Arenas, Alex, Backhausz, Ágnes and Macarthur, Benjamin , et al. (2026) Hypergraphs and simplicial complexes in focus: a roadmap for future research in higher-order interactions. Journal of Physics: Complexity, 7 (2), [022501]. (doi:10.1088/2632-072X/ae3c4e).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Higher-order interactions are increasingly being recognized as fundamental to our understanding of complex systems, networks, and the development of the next generation of AI algorithms. However, modeling higher-order interactions requires us to go beyond graphs and networks, which can only encode pairwise interactions, and so demands a new theory. Hypergraphs and simplicial complexes (also called higher-order networks), which arise as natural mathematical representations of higher-order complex systems, are therefore attracting increasing attention. The mathematics of higher-order networks is already providing important insights, yet many fundamental mathematical questions remain unsolved; for instance, in spectral graph theory, discrete topology, and higher-order network dynamics. This roadmap summarizes the scientific discussions that took place on these topics between pure mathematicians, theoretical physicists, computer and network scientists at the Newton Institute Satellite meeting on ‘Hypergraphs: Theory and Applications’. We survey the current state-of-the-art in higher-order network research, and propose some trajectories for future research, including in areas such as extremal and spectral hypergraph theory, discrete topology, higher-order dynamics, higher-order machine learning, and applications in the brain and social sciences.

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Abiad_2026_J._Phys._Complex._7_022501 - Version of Record
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Accepted/In Press date: 20 January 2026
e-pub ahead of print date: 1 April 2026
Published date: 1 April 2026
Keywords: hypergraphs, simplicity complexes, higher-order interactions, triadic interactions

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 512226
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/512226
ISSN: 2632-072X
PURE UUID: f44756b0-c1c9-4e3e-852f-1f56852c8a39
ORCID for Benjamin Macarthur: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-5396-9750
ORCID for Ruben J Sanchez-Garcia: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-6479-3028

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Date deposited: 19 Jun 2026 16:51
Last modified: 19 Aug 2026 02:36

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Contributors

Author: Aida Abiad
Author: Alex Arenas
Author: Ágnes Backhausz
Author: József Balogh
Author: Christopher Banerji
Author: Sergio Barbarossa
Author: Ginestra Bianconi
Author: Christian Bick
Author: Magnus Botnan
Author: Timoteo Carletti
Author: Lucia Cavallaro
Author: Andrea Civilini
Author: Tina Eliassi-Rad
Author: Xue Gong
Author: Krystal Guo
Author: Heather Harrington
Author: Jürgen Jost
Author: P L Krapivsky
Author: Pietro Liò
Author: Carolina Mattsson
Author: Pedro Mediano
Author: Ana Millan
Author: Raffaella Mulas
Author: Alice Patania
Author: Giovanni Petri
Author: Cerene Rathilal
Author: Martina Scolamiero
Author: Michael Schaub
Author: Hanlin Sun
Author: Yu Tian
Author: Francesco Vaccarino
Author: Kelin Xia
Corporate Author: et al.

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