Topological properties lie at the heart of many fascinating phenomena in solid state systems such as quantum Hall systems or Chern insulators. The topology can be captured by the distribution of Berry curvature, which describes the geometry of the eigenstates across the Brillouin zone. Employing fermionic ultracold atoms in a hexagonal optical lattice, we generate topological bands using resonant driving and show a full momentumresolved measurement of the ensuing Berry curvature. Our results pave the way to explore intriguing phases of matter with interactions in topological band structures.Topology is a fundamental concept for our understanding of many fascinating systems that have recently attracted a lot of interest, such as topological superconductors or topological insulators, which conduct only at their edges [1]. The topology of the bulk band is quantified by the Berry curvature [2] and the integral over the full Brillouin zone is a topological invariant, called the Chern number. According to the bulk boundary correspondence principle, the Chern number determines the number of chiral conducting edge states [1]. While in a variety of lattice systems ranging from solid state systems to photonic waveguides and even coupled mechanical pendula, edge states have been directly observed [3][4][5][6][7], the underlying Berry curvature as the central measure of topology is not easily accessible. In recent years, ultracold atoms in optical lattices have emerged as a platform to study topological band structures [8,9] and these systems have seen considerable experimental and theoretical progress. Whereas in condensed matter systems, topological properties arise due to external magnetic fields or intrinsic spin-orbit coupling of the material, they can in cold atom systems be engineered by periodic driving analogous to illuminated graphene [10]. Interestingly, the resulting Floquet system can have totally new topological properties [11]. The driving can, for example, be realized by lattice shaking [12][13][14][15][16] or Raman coupling [17][18][19] with high precision control in a large parameter space. In particular, the driving can break time-reversal symmetry [13,14,16] and thus allows for engineering non-trivial topology [16,18]. In quantum gas experiments, topolog- ical properties have been probed via the Hall drift of accelerated wave packets [16,18], via an interferometer in momentum space [20,21]

Recently, the identification of non-equilibrium signatures of topology in the dynamics of such systems has attracted particular attention [3][4][5][6] . Here, we experimentally study the dynamical evolution of the wavefunction using time-and momentum-resolved full state tomography for spin-polarized fermionic atoms in driven optical lattices 7 . We observe the appearance, movement and annihilation of dynamical vortices in momentum space after sudden quenches close to the topological phase transition. These dynamical vortices can be interpreted as dynamical Fisher zeros of the Loschmidt amplitude 8 , which signal a so-called dynamical phase transition 9,10 . Our results pave the way to a deeper understanding of the connection between topological phases and non-equilibrium dynamics.The discovery of topological matter has revolutionized our understanding of band theory: not only are the dispersions of the energy bands important, but so is the geometry of the corresponding eigenstates 1 . The non-local nature of the topological invariants characterizing such phases goes beyond the Landau paradigm of local order parameters and leads to topological protection, for example, against disorder. Ultracold quantum gases in optical lattices allow for controlled studies of archetypal topological models [11][12][13][14] . In addition, compared with, for example condensed-matter systems, they also allow for detailed studies of the relation between dynamics and topology as the timescales are experimentally easier to access. Dynamical studies of driven systems have recently attracted attention in terms of their high T c superconductivity 15 . A particular challenge is to identify non-equilibrium signatures of topology in the dynamics of highly excited states 3,4,16 . Here, we observe the time evolution of the wavefunction after a sudden quench in a Haldanelike model and find dynamical vortices as a signature of the topological nature of the underlying ground state.In the experiments described here, the state tomography method allows mapping of the full quantum-mechanical wavefunction of non-interacting ultracold fermionic quantum gases in an optical lattice for any time after a sudden quench of the system close to or into a Chern insulating phase. As a key result, we identify in an intense series of measurements the appearance, movement and annihilation In the initial system, tunnelling J AB between the A and B sites is suppressed by a large energy offset. In the final Floquet system, tunnelling is re-established by means of near-resonant driving. b, At each momentum, the Hamiltonian describes the coupling between the states of the A and B sublattices, and can be visualized on a Bloch sphere. In the initial system, the Hamiltonian for all momenta points to the north pole, whereas in the Floquet system, the Hamiltonian covers a large surface of the Bloch sphere. c, Phase diagram for the Floquet Hamiltonian as a function of shaking amplitude and detuning with respect to the sublattice offset for the case of circular lattice shaking...

Integer-valued topological indices, characterizing nonlocal properties of quantum states of matter, are known to directly predict robust physical properties of equilibrium systems. The Chern number, e.g., determines the quantized Hall conductivity of an insulator. Using non-interacting fermionic atoms in a periodically driven optical lattice, here we demonstrate experimentally that the Chern number determines also the far-from-equilibrium dynamics of a quantum system. Extending a respective proposal to Floquet systems, we measure the linking number that characterizes the trajectories of momentum-space vortices emerging after a strong quench. We observe that it directly corresponds to the ground-state Chern number. This one-to-one relation between a dynamical and a static topological index allows us to experimentally map out the phase diagram of our system. Furthermore, we measure the instantaneous Chern number and show that it remains zero under the unitary dynamics.