We consider a system of interacting spin-one atoms in a hexagonal lattice
under the presence of a synthetic gauge field. Quenching the quadratic Zeeman
field is shown to lead to a dynamical instability of the edge modes. This, in
turn, leads to a spin current along the boundary of the system which grows
exponentially fast in time following the quench. Tuning the magnitude of the
quench can be used to selectively populate edge modes of different momenta.
Implications of the intrinsic symmetries of Hamiltonian on the dynamics are
discussed. The results hold for atoms with both antiferromagnetic and
ferromagnetic interactions.Comment: 7 pages (expanded Supplemental Material
