  When quantum fluctuations in the phase of the superconducting order parameter
destroy the off-diagonal long range order, duality arguments predict the
formation of a Cooper pair crystal. This effect is thought to be responsible
for the static checkerboard patterns observed recently in various underdoped
cuprate superconductors by means of scanning tunneling spectroscopy. Breaking
of the translational symmetry in such a Cooper pair Wigner crystal may, under
certain conditions, lead to the emergence of low lying transverse vibrational
modes which could then contribute to thermodynamic and transport properties at
low temperatures. We investigate these vibrational modes using a continuum
version of the standard vortex-boson duality, calculate the speed of sound in
the Cooper pair Wigner crystal and deduce the associated specific heat and
thermal conductivity. We then suggest that these modes could be responsible for
the mysterious bosonic contribution to the thermal conductivity recently
observed in strongly underdoped ultraclean single crystals of YBCO tuned across
the superconductor-insulator transition.
