| Abstract: |
Symmetry provides a powerful guiding principle in theoretical physics. Effective field theories based on global symmetries and their patterns of spontaneous breaking have been remarkably successful in capturing universal long-wavelength dynamics. This framework can be further refined using generalized global symmetries, for instance higher-form symmetries. Electromagnetism in vacuum is a well-known example of spontaneous breaking of a U(1) 1 form symmetry, with the photon emerging as the associated Nambu–Goldstone mode. However, the behavior of photons in this broken phase at finite temperature, i.e. photons in the insulator, has not been studied from the perspective of the U(1) 1-form symmetry. Building on this symmetry structure, we construct an effective field theory that incorporates fluctuations and dissipation beyond purely Hermitian dynamics, formulated within the Schwinger–Keldysh formalism. Our theory provides a model-independent description of dissipative photon dynamics, identifying higher-form symmetry as the organizing principle of their effective time-evolution.
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