  Hysteresis can be found in driven many-body systems such as magnets and
superfluids. Rate-dependent hysteresis arises when a system is driven
periodically while relaxing towards equilibrium. A two-state paramagnet driven
by an oscillating magnetic field in the relaxation approximation clearly
demonstrates rate-dependent hysteresis. A noninteracting atomic Fermi gas in an
optical ring potential, when driven by a periodic artificial gauge field and
subjected to dissipation, is shown to exhibit hysteresis loops of atomic
current due to a competition of the driving time and the relaxation time. This
is in contrast to electronic systems exhibiting equilibrium persistent current
driven by magnetic flux due to rapid relaxation. Universal behavior of the
dissipated energy in one hysteresis loop is observed in both the magnetic and
atomic systems, showing linear and inverse-linear dependence on the relaxation
time in the strong and weak dissipation regimes. While interactions in general
invalidate the framework for rate-dependent hysteresis, an atomic Fermi gas
with artificial spin-orbit coupling exhibits hysteresis loops of atomic
currents. Cold-atoms in ring-shape potentials are thus promising in
demonstrating rate-dependent hysteresis and its associated phenomena.
