We study a composite quantum quench of the energy gap and the interactions in the interacting 4 model using a self-consistent approximation. First we review results for free theories where a quantum quench of the energy gap or mass leads for long times to stationary behavior with thermal characteristics. An exception to this rule is the 2d case with zero mass after the quench. In the composite quench, however, we find that the effect of the interactions in our approximation is simply to effectively change the value of the mass. This means on the one hand that the interacting model also exhibits the same stationary behavior and on the other hand that this is now true even for the massless 2d case.

In the majority of the analytical verifications of the conjecture that the Generalised Gibbs Ensemble describes the large time asymptotics of local observables in quantum quench problems, both the post-quench and the pre-quench Hamiltonians are essentially noninteracting. We test this conjecture studying the field correlations in the more general case of an arbitrary pre-quench Hamiltonian, while keeping the post-quench one noninteracting. We first show that in the previously studied special case of a noninteracting pre-quench Hamiltonian, the validity of the conjecture is a consequence of Wick's theorem. We then show that it is also valid in the general case of an arbitrary interacting pre-quench Hamiltonian, but this time as a consequence of the cluster decomposition property of the initial state, which is a fundamental principle for generic physical states. For arbitrary initial states that do not satisfy the cluster decomposition property, the above conjecture is not generally true. As a byproduct of our investigation we obtain an analytical derivation of earlier numerical results for the large time evolution of correlations after a quantum quench of the interaction in the Lieb-Liniger model from a nonzero value to zero.

We study the nonequilibrium dynamics of a Tonks-Girardeau gas released from a parabolic trap to a circle. We present the exact analytic solution of the many body dynamics and prove that, for large times and in a properly defined thermodynamic limit, the reduced density matrix of any finite subsystem converges to a generalized Gibbs ensemble. The equilibration mechanism is expected to be the same for all one-dimensional systems.