Energy diffusion and absorption in chaotic systems with rapid periodic driving

Abstract

When a chaotic, ergodic Hamiltonian system with $N$ degrees of freedom is subject to sufficiently rapid periodic driving, its energy evolves diffusively. We derive a Fokker-Planck equation that governs the evolution of the system's probability distribution in energy space, and we provide explicit expressions for the energy drift and diffusion rates. Our analysis suggests that the system generically relaxes to a long-lived "prethermal" state characterized by minimal energy absorption, eventually followed by more rapid heating. When $N\gg 1$, the system ultimately absorbs energy indefinitely from the drive, or at least until an infinite temperature state is reached.