We investigate the impact of contrarians (via negative coupling) in multilayer networks of
phase oscillators having higher-order interactions. We report that the multilayer framework
facilitates synchronization onset in the negative pairwise coupling regime. The multilayering
strength governs the onset of synchronization and the nature of the phase transition,
whereas the higher-order interactions dictate the backward critical coupling. Specifically, the
system does not synchronize below a critical value of the multilayering strength. The …