Transverse Quantum Fluids

Abstract

Motivated by remarkable properties of superfluid edge dislocations in solid Helium-4, we discuss a broad class of quantum systems -- boundaries in phase separated lattice states, magnetic domain walls, and ensembles of Luttinger liquids -- that can be classified as Transverse Quantum Fluids (TQF). After introducing the general idea of TQF, we focus on a coupled array of Luttinger liquids forming an incoherent TQF. This state is a long-range ordered quasi-one-dimensional superfluid, topologically protected against quantum phase slips by tight-binding of instanton dipoles, that has no coherent quasi-particle excitations at low energies. Incoherent TQF is a striking example of the irrelevance of the Landau quasiparticle criterion for superfluidity in systems that lack Galilean invariance. We detail its phenomenology, to motivate a number of experimental studies in condensed matter and cold atomic systems.