Cycle holonomy captures higher-order compatibility constraints in remote synchronization

Abstract

Higher-order interactions have typically been modeled using hypergraphs or simplicial complexes, where interactions explicitly involve more than two nodes. Here we demonstrate that effective higher-order dynamical constraints emerge naturally on ordinary graphs, provided the interaction carries nontrivial topological structure. We study a gauge-coupled phase model with edge phase lags whose accumulation around closed loops produces gauge-invariant mismatches. We show that the associated twisted Laplacian admits a zero mode if and only if all cycle holonomies vanish. Consequently, global compatibility is obstructed not by local pairwise mismatches, but by intrinsic topological frustration on cycles. We then connect this framework to the symmetric Sakaguchi--Kuramoto model, whose local coupling law differs from the gauge-coupled model but whose node phases impose cycle closure on physical phase differences. For cactus graphs, path mismatches induced by the symmetric lag can be represented through associated cycle holonomies, providing a static spectral encoding of their global residual incompatibility. Our results establish a spectral framework linking frustration to cycle-level constraints and identify cycle holonomy as a local-to-global diagnostic of path incompatibility in synchronization dynamics.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Communications Physics, 2026 · DOI ↗