Topologically Stable Ergodicity Breaking from Emergent Higher-Form Symmetries in Generalized Quantum Loop Models

We present a set of generalized quantum loop models which provably exhibittopologically stable ergodicity breaking. These results hold for both periodicand open boundary conditions, and derive from a one-form symmetry (notably notbeing restricted to sectors of extremal one-form charge). We identify simplemodels in which this one-form symmetry can be emergent, giving rise to theaforementioned ergodicity breaking as an exponentially long-lived prethermalphenomenon. We unveil a web of dualities that connects these models, in certainlimits, to models that have previously been discussed in the literature. Wealso identify nonlocal conserved quantities in such models that correspond to apattern of system-spanning domain walls, and which are robust to the additionof arbitrary k-local perturbations.