Superconductivity and superfluidity as universal emergent phenomena

Superconductivity (SC) or superfluidity (SF) is observed across a remarkably broad range of fermionic systems: in BCS, cuprate, iron-based, organic, and heavy-fermion superconductors, and in superfluid helium-3 in condensed matter; in a variety of SC/SF phenomena in low-energy nuclear physics; in ultracold, trapped atomic gases; and in various exotic possibilities in neutron stars. The range of physical conditions and differences in microscopic physics defy all attempts to unify this behavior in any conventional picture. Here we propose a unification through the shared symmetry properties of the emergent condensed states, with microscopic differences absorbed into parameters. This, in turn, forces a rethinking of specific occurrences of SC/SF such as high-T_c SC in cuprates, which becomes far less mysterious when seen as part of a continuum of behavior shared by a variety of other systems.