Kovacs-like memory effect in driven granular gases

While memory effects have been reported for dense enough disordered systems such as glasses, we show here by a combination of analytical and simulation techniques that they are also intrinsic to the dynamics of dilute granular gases. By means of a certain driving protocol, we prepare the gas in a state where the granular temperature $T$ coincides with its long time limit. However, $T$ does not subsequently remain constant, but exhibits a non-monotonic evolution before reaching its non-equilibrium steady value. The corresponding so-called Kovacs hump displays a normal behavior for weak dissipation (as observed in molecular systems), but is reversed under strong dissipation, where it thus becomes anomalous.