On emergence from the perspective of physical science

Abstract: In this paper, we summarize the development of the concept of emergence in physical science and propose key concepts of emergence in the form of conjectures. Our conjectures are threefold: I. A system having a broken-symmetry in membership relation with respect to micro and macro scales can have emergent properties. II. Spontaneous symmetry-breaking is an example of an emergent property. III. The phenomenon of hysteresis accompanies spontaneous symmetry-breaking. We argue that these conjectures and their relationship can illuminate the concept of emergence from the perspective of symmetry breaking.