Dynamics of large complex systems, such as relaxation towards equilibrium in classical statistical mechanics, often obeys a master equation that captures essential information from the complexities. Here, we find that thermalization of an isolated many-body quantum state can be described by a master equation. We observe sudden quench dynamics of quantum Ising-like models implemented in our quantum simulator, defect-free single-atom tweezers in conjunction with Rydberg-atom interaction. Saturation of their local observables, a thermalization signature, obeys a master equation experimentally constructed by monitoring the occupation probabilities of prequench states and imposing the principle of the detailed balance. Our experiment agrees with theories and demonstrates the detailed balance in a thermalization dynamics that does not require coupling to baths or postulated randomness.

When two identical fermions exchange their positions, their wave function gains a phase factor of -1. We show that this distance-independent effect can induce nonlocal entanglement in one-dimensional (1D) electron systems having Majorana fermions at the ends. It occurs in the system bulk and has a nontrivial temperature dependence. In a system having a single Majorana fermion at each end, the nonlocal entanglement has a Bell-state form at zero temperature and decays as the temperature increases, vanishing suddenly at a certain finite temperature. In a system having two Majorana fermions at each end, it is in a cluster-state form and its nonlocality is more noticeable at a finite temperature. By contrast, the thermal states of corresponding 1D spins do not have nonlocal entanglement.