Emergence of higher-order interactions in systems of coupled Kuramoto oscillators with time delay

Abstract

We show that higher-order interactions naturally emerge from time-delayed pairwise coupling in Kuramoto oscillators. By expanding the delayed pairwise coupling to the second order, we derive a delay-free Kuramoto model possessing both pairwise and three-body interactions. Numerical simulations and stability analysis demonstrate that the three-body Kuramoto model and the time-delayed pairwise Kuramoto model exhibit qualitatively consistent synchronization transitions under appropriate conditions. In particular, the bistability arising in the time-delayed Kuramoto model is accounted for by the three-body interactions. Our findings reveal that time delays can be recast effectively as higher-order interactions, providing an insight into how coupling delays shape collective dynamics.