Superfluidity in the absence of kinetics in spin-orbit-coupled optical lattices

At low temperatures bosons typically condense to minimize their single-particle kinetic energy while interactions stabilize superfluidity. Optical lattices with artificial spin-orbit coupling challenge this paradigm, because here kinetic energy can be quenched in an extreme regime where the single-particle band flattens. To probe the fate of superfluidity in the absence of kinetics we construct and numerically solve interaction-only tight-binding models in flatbands. We find that superfluid states arise entirely from interactions operating in quenched kinetic energy bands, thus revealing a distinct and unexpected condensation mechanism. Our results have important implications for the identification of quantum condensed phases of ultracold bosons beyond conventional paradigms.