The antiferromagnetic phase of the Floquet-driven Hubbard model

A saddle point plus fluctuation analysis of the periodically driven half-filled two-dimensional Hubbard model is performed. For drive frequencies below the equilibrium gap, we find discontinuous transitions to time-dependent solutions. A highly excited, generically nonthermal distribution of magnons occurs even for drive frequencies far above the gap. Above a critical drive amplitude, the low-energy magnon distribution diverges as the frequency tends to zero and antiferromagnetism is destroyed, revealing the generic importance of collective mode excitations arising from a nonequilibrium drive.