  We show that the dynamics resulting from preparing a one-dimensional quantum
system in the ground state of two decoupled parts, then joined together and
left to evolve unitarily with a translational invariant Hamiltonian (a local
quench), can be described by means of quantum field theory. In the case when
the corresponding theory is conformal, we study the evolution of the
entanglement entropy for different bi-partitions of the line. We also consider
the behavior of one- and two-point correlation functions. All our findings may
be explained in terms of a picture, that we believe to be valid more generally,
whereby quasiparticles emitted from the joining point at the initial time
propagate semiclassically through the system.
