  When a local potential changes abruptly in time, an electron gas shifts to a
new state which at long times is orthogonal to the one in the absence of the
local potential. This is known as Anderson's orthogonality catastrophe and it
is relevant for the so-called X-ray edge or Fermi edge singularity, and for
tunneling into an interacting one dimensional system of fermions. It often
happens that the finite frequency response of the photon absorption or the
tunneling density of states exhibits a singular behavior as a function of
frequency: $(\frac{\omega_{\rm th}}{\omega-\omega_{\rm
th}})^\alpha\Theta(\omega-\omega_{\rm th})$ where $\omega_{\rm th}$ is a
threshold frequency and $\alpha$ is an exponent characterizing the singular
response. In this paper singular responses of spin-incoherent Luttinger liquids
are reviewed. Such responses most often do not fall into the familiar form
above, but instead typically exhibit logarithmic corrections and display a much
higher universality in terms of the microscopic interactions in the theory.
Specific predictions are made, the current experimental situation is
summarized, and key outstanding theoretical issues related to spin-incoherent
Luttinger liquids are highlighted.
