Exact emergent higher-form symmetries in bosonic lattice models

Abstract

Although condensed matter systems usually do not have higher-form symmetries, we show that, unlike 0-form symmetry, higher-form symmetries can emerge as exact symmetries at low energies and long distances. In particular, emergent higher-form symmetries at zero temperature are robust to arbitrary local UV perturbations in the thermodynamic limit. This result is true for both invertible and non-invertible higher-form symmetries. Therefore, emergent higher-form symmetries are $\text{exact emergent symmetries}$: they are not UV symmetries but constrain low-energy dynamics as if they were. Since phases of matter are defined in the thermodynamic limit, this implies that a UV theory without higher-form symmetries can have phases characterized by exact emergent higher-form symmetries. We demonstrate this in three lattice models, the quantum clock model and emergent ${\mathbb{Z}}_N$ and $U(1)$ $p$-gauge theory, finding regions of parameter space with exact emergent (anomalous) higher-form symmetries. Furthermore, we perform a generalized Landau analysis of a 2+1D lattice model that gives rise to ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ gauge theory. Using exact emergent 1-form symmetries accompanied by their own energy/length scales, we show that the transition between the deconfined and Higgs/confined phases is continuous and equivalent to the spontaneous symmetry-breaking transition of a ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ symmetry, even though the lattice model has no symmetry. Also, we show that this transition line must $\text{always}$ contain two parts separated by multi-critical points or other phase transitions. We discuss the physical consequences of exact emergent higher-form symmetries and contrast them to emergent $0$-form symmetries. Lastly, we show that emergent 1-form symmetries are no longer exact at finite temperatures, but emergent $p$-form symmetries with $p\ge 2$ are.

22 + 15 pages, 16 figures, 3 appendices. v2: minor changes throughout, added references, updated Sections 3 and 4, and added section 5 on finite temperature effects. v3: made manuscript shorter with minor changes to content. v4: minor changes and added a section on the Fradkin-Shenker model. v5: published version

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