Extended Data Fig. 10: Build-up of vertex excitations with and without an initial string.

a, Spatiotemporal map of ⟨A_v⟩ for three different λ ∈ {0, 0.25, 0.50} and constant h_E = 1.4, starting from the WALA initial state and time evolving. b, Same as panel a but starting with an excited initial state with a string stretched across the grid, whose initial trajectory is indicated by the black qubits. c, The average probability of finding a vertex excitation on any site, for each of the columns in panels a and b (both initial states). Results from evolving the WALA initial state are shown in beige and those from evolving the string initial state are shown in dark green. Markers represent experiments with λ = 0 (pluses), λ = 0.25 (crosses) and λ = 0.50 (stars). The grey region is bounded by the average of all vertices when λ = 0 having started in the initial state (same as green pluses). The bottom panel shows the global depolarization rescaled values (markers) and the numerical noiseless circuit simulations (lines).