  Topological materials can host edge and corner states that are protected from
disorder and material imperfections. In particular, the topological edge states
of mechanical structures present unmatched opportunities for achieving robust
responses in wave guiding, sensing, computation, and filtering. However,
determining whether a mechanical structure is topologically nontrivial and
features topologically-protected modes has hitherto relied on theoretical
models. This strong requirement has limited the experimental and practical
significance of topological mechanics to laboratory demonstrations. Here, we
introduce and validate an experimental method to detect the topologically
protected zero modes of mechanical structures without resorting to any modeling
step. Our practical method is based on a simple electrostatic analogy:
topological zero modes are akin to electric charges. To detect them, we
identify elementary mechanical molecules and measure their chiral polarization,
a recently introduced marker of topology in chiral phases. Topological zero
modes are then identified as singularities of the polarization field. Our
method readily applies to any mechanical structure and effectively detects the
edge and corner states of regular and higher-order topological insulators. Our
findings extend the reach of chiral topological phases beyond designer
materials, and allow their direct experimental investigation.
