Comment on "Moving Glass Phase of Driven Lattices"

Abstract

We consider a periodic lattice rapidly driven through a quenched random potential as a model of a moving Abrikosov lattice. In addition to the transverse phonon displacements $u_y$, we consider the displacements $u_x$ along the direction of motion, which were assumed to be small in earlier treatments. We show that these displacements are in fact divergent even on large length scales and therefore lead to a breakdown of the elastic model along the direction of motion. We propose that the resulting phase is a moving "smectic" with translational order that is quasi-long-range transverse and liquid-like parallel to the direction of motion.