Fig. 4: Exact diagonalization calculation and model for the transient behavior observed at ν = 1.

a Eigenenergy spectrum of the lowest Landau level with 9 electrons occupying 8 spin degenerate states. Note that the ν = 1 state would be comprised of 8 spin-polarized electrons. Blue dashes depict a system with 8 spin polarized electrons and 1 spin-flipped electron, referred to here as the ν = 1+ state. The black dash at angular momentum 31 depicts the ground state comprised of a maximally depolarized skyrmion. b Calculated spectral functions for injecting a single, spin-up, electron into the N = 1 Landau level probing the ν = 1 (red line) and ν = 1+ (blue line) states. The horizontal axis is the injection energy in the N = 1 LL in units of E_ex. The two dashed vertical lines depict the double-peak structure when the domains of ν = 1 and ν = 1+ coexist in nonequilibrium (see Supplementary Note 2 for details). c Graphical description of the model of the transient behavior observed at ν close to 1. Before pumping the target at ν = 1, exchange interactions¹⁴ favor the ferromagnetic state at ν = 1. Shortly after pumping, the formation of ν = 1+ droplets with single-flipped spins gives rise to an additional tunneling peak at higher energy. As electrons in the system rethermalize and form an equilibrium skyrmion phase^17,21, the double-peak structure evolves into the single-peak form, consistent with the equilibrium tunneling spectrum^14,17 measured by static density tuning.