  The concept of symmetry breaking and the emergence of corresponding local
order parameters constitute the pillars of modern day many body physics. The
theory of quantum entanglement is currently leading to a paradigm shift in
understanding quantum correlations in many body systems and in this work we
show how symmetry breaking can be understood from this wavefunction centered
point of view. We demonstrate that the existence of symmetry breaking is a
consequence of the geometric structure of the convex set of reduced density
matrices of all possible many body wavefunctions. The surfaces of those convex
bodies exhibit non-analytic behavior in the form of ruled surfaces, which turn
out to be the defining signatures for the emergence of symmetry breaking and of
an associated order parameter.
  We illustrate this by plotting the convex sets arising in the context of
three paradigmatic examples of many body systems exhibiting symmetry breaking:
the quantum Ising model in transverse magnetic field, exhibiting a second order
quantum phase transition; the classical Ising model at finite temperature in
two dimensions, which orders below a critical temperature $T_c$; and a system
of free bosons at finite temperature in three dimensions, exhibiting the
phenomenon of Bose-Einstein condensation together with an associated order
parameter $\langle\psi\rangle$. Remarkably, these convex sets look all very
much alike. We believe that this wavefunction based way of looking at phase
transitions demystifies the emergence of order parameters and provides a unique
novel tool for studying exotic quantum phenomena.
