We study the dynamics and thermalization of strongly correlated fermions in finite one-dimensional lattices after a quantum quench. Our calculations are performed using exact diagonalization. We focus on one- and two-body observables such as the momentum distribution function
[n(k)] and the density-density structure factor
[N(k)], respectively, and study the effects of approaching an integrable point. We show that while the relaxation dynamics and thermalization of
N(k) for fermions is very similar to the one of hardcore bosons, the behavior of
n(k) is distinctively different. The latter observable exhibits a slower relaxation dynamics in fermionic systems. We identify the origin of this behavior, which is related to the off-diagonal matrix elements of
n(k) in the basis of the eigenstates of the Hamiltonian. More generally, we find that thermalization occurs far away from integrability and that it breaks down as one approaches the integrable point.
We test the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) in 1 + 1 -dimensional SU(2) lattice gauge theory (LGT) with one flavor of dynamical fermions. Using the loop-string-hadron framework of the LGT with a bosonic cutoff, we exactly diagonalize the Hamiltonian for finite size systems and calculate matrix elements (MEs) in the eigenbasis for both local and nonlocal operators. We analyze different indicators to identify the parameter space for quantum chaos at finite lattice sizes and investigate how the ETH behavior emerges in both the diagonal and off-diagonal MEs. Our investigations allow us to study various timescales of thermalization and the emergence of random matrix behavior, and highlight the interplays of the several diagnostics with each other. Furthermore, from the off-diagonal MEs, we extract a smooth function that is closely related to the spectral function for both local and nonlocal operators. We find numerical evidence of the spectral gap and the memory peak in the nonlocal operator case. Finally, we investigate aspects of subsystem ETH in the lattice gauge theory and identify certain features in the subsystem reduced density matrix that are unique to gauge theories.