  Quantum spin liquids subject to a periodic drive can display fascinating
non-equilibrium heating behavior because of their emergent fractionalized
quasi-particles. Here, we investigate a driven Kitaev honeycomb model and
examine the dynamics of emergent Majorana matter and $Z_2$ flux excitations. We
uncover a distinct two-step heating profile $\textrm{--}$ dubbed fractionalized
prethermalization $\textrm{--}$ and a quasi-stationary state with vastly
different temperatures for the matter and the flux sectors. We argue that this
peculiar prethermalization behavior is a consequence of fractionalization.
Furthermore, we discuss an experimentally feasible protocol for preparing a
zero-flux initial state of the Kiteav honeycomb model with a low energy
density, which can be used to observe fractionalized prethermalization in
quantum information processing platforms.
