  We show that exotic phases arise in generalized lattice gauge theories known
as quantum link models in which classical gauge fields are replaced by quantum
operators. While these quantum models with discrete variables have a
finite-dimensional Hilbert space per link, the continuous gauge symmetry is
still exact. An efficient cluster algorithm is used to study these exotic
phases. The $(2+1)$-d system is confining at zero temperature with a
spontaneously broken translation symmetry. A crystalline phase exhibits
confinement via multi-stranded strings between charge-anti-charge pairs. A
phase transition between two distinct confined phases is weakly first order and
has an emergent spontaneously broken approximate $SO(2)$ global symmetry. The
low-energy physics is described by a $(2+1)$-d $\mathbb{R}P(1)$ effective field
theory, perturbed by a dangerously irrelevant $SO(2)$ breaking operator, which
prevents the interpretation of the emergent pseudo-Goldstone boson as a dual
photon. This model is an ideal candidate to be implemented in quantum
simulators to study phenomena that are not accessible using Monte Carlo
simulations such as the real-time evolution of the confining string and the
real-time dynamics of the pseudo-Goldstone boson.
