Resonance-Suppression Principle for Prethermalization beyond Periodic Driving

Abstract

Non-equilibrium dynamics of strongly and rapidly driven quantum many-body systems is poorly understood beyond periodic driving, where heating is exponentially slow in the drive frequency (Floquet Prethermalization). In contrast, non-periodic drives were found to exhibit widely different heating scalings with no unifying principle. This work identifies a resonance-suppression principle governing slow heating up to a prethermal lifetime $\tau_*$: When the drive's spectral arithmetic structure restricts multiphoton resonances, $\tau_*$ is controlled by low-frequency spectral suppression. The principle distinguishes (i) Single-photon suppression, quantified by a low-frequency suppression law $f(\Omega)$ for the drive's Fourier Transform weight near $\Omega=0$, from (ii) Multi-photon suppression, where nested commutators remain controlled if exceptional arithmetic structure satisfies a subadditive property. Remarkably, if multi-photon suppression holds, $\tau_*$ scaling with drive speed $\lambda$ is governed by $f(\Omega)$. This law of $\tau_*$ is found through a small-divisor mechanism in this work's iterative rotating frame scheme. Multi-photon suppression breakdown separates $\lambda$-scaling of $\tau_*$ in linear response and non-perturbative theory, shown by a case study of Quasi-Floquet driving. The principle is applied to (i) Resolve inconsistencies in literature on non-periodic driving, and (ii) Provide design principles for engineering prethermal phases of matter in programmable quantum simulators, exemplified by new non-periodic `Factorial' drives with tunable $\tau_*$.