Sliding phase in randomly stacked 2D superfluids/superconductors

Abstract

Using large scale quantum Monte Carlo simulations of lattice bosonic models, we precisely investigate the effect of weak Josephson tunneling between 2D superfluid or superconducting layers. In the clean case, the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition immediately turns into 3DXY, with phase coherence and superflow in all spatial directions, and a strong enhancement of the critical temperature. However, when disorder is present, rare regions fluctuations can lead to an intermediate finite temperature phase --- the so called sliding regime --- where only 2D superflow occurs within the layers without any transverse superfluid coherence, while a true 3D Bose-Einstein condensate exists. Critical properties of such an unconventional regime are carefully investigated.