Identifying the origin of nonequilibrium characteristics in a generic interacting system having multiple degrees of freedom is a challenging task. In this context, information-theoretic measures such as mutual information and related polymorphs offer valuable insights. Here we explore these measures in a minimal experimental model consisting of two hydrodynamically coupled colloidal particles, where a nonequilibrium drive is introduced via an exponentially correlated noise acting on one of the particles. We show that the information-theoretic tools considered enable a systematic, data-driven dissection of information flow within the system. These measures allow us to identify the driving node and reconstruct the directional dependencies between particles. Notably, they help explain a recently observed, counterintuitive trend in the dependence of irreversibility on interaction strength under coarse-graining [Das et al., Phys. Rev. E 112, L023401 (2025)]. Finally, our results demonstrate how directional information measures can uncover the hidden structure of nonequilibrium dynamics and provide a framework for studying similar effects in more complex systems.

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• Irreversible processes
• Microparticles
• Stochastic thermodynamics
• Colloids
• Nonequilibrium systems
• Hydrodynamic models
• Information theory
• Stochastic processes & statistics