Spontaneously Broken Subsystem Symmetries

Abstract

We investigate the spontaneous breaking of subsystem symmetries directly in the context of continuum field theories by calculating the correlation function of charged operators. Our methods confirm the lack of spontaneous symmetry breaking in some of the existing continuum field theories with subsystem symmetries, as had previously been established based on a careful analysis of the spectrum. We present some novel continuum field theory constructions that do exhibit spontaneous symmetry breaking whenever allowed by general principles. These interesting patterns of symmetry breaking occur despite the fact that all the theories we study are non-interacting.

arXiv comment25 pages, 2 figures. V2: minor edits to match the published version

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Cited by in corpus (10)

• Global Dipole Symmetry, Compact Lifshitz Theory, Tensor Gauge Theory, and Fractons
• Spontaneous breaking of multipole symmetries
• Lattice Quantum Villain Hamiltonians: Compact scalars, $U(1)$ gauge theories, fracton models and Quantum Ising model dualities
• Interaction Enabled Fractonic Higher-Order Topological Phases
• Boson-fermion duality with subsystem symmetry
• Fractons, non-Riemannian Geometry, and Double Field Theory
• Fractionalization of subsystem symmetries in two dimensions
• Scalar, fermionic and supersymmetric field theories with subsystem symmetries in d+1 dimensions
• Multipole groups and fracton phenomena on arbitrary crystalline lattices
• Hybrid Symmetry Breaking in Classical Spin Models With Subsystem Symmetries