  Two of the most prominent phases of bosonic matter are the superfluid with
perfect flow and the insulator with no flow. A now decades-old mystery
unexpectedly arose when experimental observations indicated that bosons could
organize into the formation of an entirely different intervening third phase:
the Bose metal with dissipative flow. The most viable theory for such a Bose
metal to date invokes the use of the extrinsic property of impurity-based
disorder; however, a generic intrinsic quantum Bose metal state is still
lacking. We propose a universal homogeneous theory for a Bose metal in which
geometric frustration confines the essential quantum coherence to a lower
dimension. The result is a gapless insulator characterized by dissipative flow
that vanishes in the low-energy limit. This failed insulator exemplifies a
frustration-dominated regime that is only enhanced by additional scattering
sources at low energy and therefore produces a Bose metal that thrives under
realistic experimental conditions.
