Comparing high-resolution specific heat and thermal expansion measurements to exact finite-size diagonalization, we demonstrate that Cs$_2$CoCl$_4$ for a magnetic field along the crystallographic b axis realizes the spin-$frac{1}{2}$ XXZ chain in a transverse field. Exploiting both thermal as well as virtual excitations of higher crystal field states, we find that the spin chain is in the XY-limit with an anisotropy $J_z/J_perp approx 0.12$ substantially smaller than previously believed. A spin-flop Ising quantum phase transition occurs at a critical field of $mu_0 H_b^{rm cr} approx 2$ T before around 3.5 T the description in terms of an effective spin-$frac{1}{2}$ chain becomes inapplicable.
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