  We investigate radio-frequency (rf) spectroscopy, metal-to-superconductor
tunneling, and ARPES as probes of isolated out-of-equilibrium quantum systems,
and examine the crucial role played by the nonequilibrium distribution
function. As an example, we focus on the induced topological time-periodic
(Floquet) phase in a 2D $p+ip$ superfluid, following an instantaneous quench of
the coupling strength. The post-quench Cooper pairs occupy a linear combination
of "ground" and "excited" Floquet states, with coefficients determined by the
distribution function. While the Floquet bandstructure exhibits a single
avoided crossing relative to the equilibrium case, the distribution function
shows a population inversion of the Floquet bands at low energies. For a
realization in ultracold atoms, these two features compensate, producing a bulk
average rf signal that is well-captured by a quasi-equilibrium approximation.
In particular, the rf spectrum shows a robust gap. The single crossing occurs
because the quench-induced Floquet phase belongs to a particular class of
soliton dynamics for the BCS equation. The population inversion is a
consequence of this, and ensures the conservation of the pseudospin winding
number. As a comparison, we compute the rf signal when only the lower Floquet
band is occupied; in this case, the gap disappears for strong quenches. The
tunneling signal in a solid state realization is ignorant of the distribution
function, and can show wildly different behaviors. We also examine rf,
tunneling, and ARPES for weak quenches, such that the resulting topological
steady-state is characterized by a constant nonequilibrium order parameter. In
a system with a boundary, tunneling reveals the Majorana edge states. However,
the local rf signal due to the edge states is suppressed by a factor of the
inverse system size, and is spatially deconfined throughout the bulk of the
sample.
