Slow quench dynamics of periodically driven quantum gases

We study the evolution of bosons in a periodically driven optical lattice during a slow change of the driving amplitude. Both the regime of high-frequency and low-frequency driving are investigated. In the low-frequency regime, resonant absorption of energy is observed. In the high-frequency regime, the dynamics is compared to a system with an effective Hamiltonian in which the atoms are dressed by the driving field. This dressing can dramatically change the amplitude and sign of the effective tunneling. A particular focus of this study is the investigation of the time scales necessary for the evolving quantum state to follow almost adiabatically to the ground state of the effective many-body system.