Emergent 1-form symmetries

Understand

We explore the necessary conditions for 1-form symmetries to emerge in the long-distance limit when they are explicitly broken at short distances.

• A minimal requirement is that there exist operators which become topological at long distances and that these operators have non-trivial correlation functions.
• These criteria are obeyed when the would-be emergent symmetry is spontaneously broken, or is involved in 't Hooft anomalies.
• On the other hand, confinement, i.e.