Observation of symmetry-protected topological band with ultracold fermions

Symmetry plays a fundamental role in understanding complex quantum matters, in particular, in classifying topological quantum phases which have attracted great interests in the recent decade. An outstanding example is the time-reversal invariant topological insulator, a symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phase in symplectic class of the Altland-Zirnbauer classification. Here, we report the first observation for ultracold atoms of a new SPT phase in a one-dimensional optical lattice, and study quench dynamics between topologically distinct phases. The observed SPT phase is protected by a magnetic group and a nonlocal chiral symmetry, with its topology being measured via Bloch states at symmetric momenta. The topology also resides in far-from-equilibrium spin dynamics, which are predicted and observed in experiment to exhibit qualitatively distinct behaviors in quenching to trivial and nontrivial phases, revealing a deep topology-dependent spin relaxation dynamics. This work opens the way to expanding the scope of SPT phases with ultracold atoms and studying non-