Heating Dynamics in a Periodically Driven SYK-Model

Periodically driven quantum matter can realize exotic dynamical phases that do not even exist in equilibrium. In order to understand how ubiquitous and robust these phases are, it is important to understand the heating dynamics of generic interacting quantum systems. We study the thermalization and heating dynamics in a generalized SYK-model subjected to a periodic drive, which realize a Fermi-Liquid (FL) to Non-FL crossover at a certain energy scale. Using an exact field theoretic approach we determine two regimes in the heating dynamics. At energies above the crossover scale the system is efficiently thermalizing and heats up exponentially. This crossover in the heating dynamics may be experimentally studied by measuring the absorption of THz laser light that impinges an irregularly shaped graphene flake in a strong magnetic field, which has been proposed to realize exotic SYK physics.