A symmetry principle for emergent spacetime

Abstract: There are many examples where geometry and gravity are concepts that emerge from a theory of quantum mechanics without gravity. This suggests thinking of gravity as an exotic phase of matter. Quantifying this phase in the Landau paradigm requires some sort of symmetry principle or order parameter that captures its appearance. In this essay we propose higher-form symmetries as a symmetry principle underlying emergent spacetime. We explore higher-form symmetries in gauge-gravity duality and explain how their breaking describes features of a gravitational theory. Such symmetries imply the existence of nonlocal objects in the gravitational theory -- in gauge-gravity duality these are the strings and branes of the bulk theory -- giving an alternative way to understand the nonlocality necessary in any ultraviolet completion of gravity.