  In contrast to the well known Fermi liquid theory of three dimensions,
interacting one-dimensional and quasi one-dimensional systems of fermions are
described at low energy by an effective theory known as Luttinger liquid
theory. This theory is expressed in terms of collective many-body excitations
that show exotic behavior such as spin-charge separation. Luttinger liquid
theory is commonly applied on the premise that "low energy" describes both the
spin and charge sectors. However, when the interactions in the system are very
strong, as they typically are at low particle densities, the ratio of spin to
charge energy may become exponentially small. It is then possible at very low
temperatures for the energy to be low compared to the characteristic charge
energy, but still high compared to the characteristic spin energy. This energy
window of near ground-state charge degrees of freedom, but highly thermally
excited spin degrees of freedom is called a spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid.
The spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid exhibits a higher degree universality than
the Luttinger liquid and its properties are qualitatively distinct. In this
colloquium I detail some of the recent theoretical developments in the field
and describe experimental indications of such a regime in gated semiconductor
quantum wires.
