Approach to Equilibrium of a Restricted Class of Isolated Quantum Systems After a Quench

Abstract: We prove the approach to equilibrium of quenched isolated quantum systems for which the change in the Hamiltonian brought about by the quench satisfies a certain closed commutator algebra with all the extensive integrals of motion of the system before the quench. The proof is carried out by following the exact unitary evolution of the entropy operator, defined as the negative of the logarithm of the nonequilibrium density matrix, and showing that, under the conditions implied by the assumed algebra, this entropy operator becomes, at infinite times, a linear combination of integrals of motion of the perturbed system. That is, we show how the nonequilibrium density matrix approaches a generalized Gibbs ensemble. The restricted class of systems for which the present results apply turn out to have degenerate spectra in general, as opposed to some generic systems for which a kind of ergodicity is expected, with a nontrivial dynamics believed to find instances in one-dimensional infinite super-integrable systems. Our findings constitute a direct demonstration of how a non-ergodic isolated quantum system may get to statistical equilibrium.