  We establish a setting - atoms in optical superlattices with period 2 - in
which one can experimentally probe signatures of the process of local
relaxation and apparent thermalization in non-equilibrium dynamics without the
need of addressing single sites. This opens up a way to explore the convergence
of subsystems to maximum entropy states in quenched quantum many-body systems
with present technology. Remarkably, the emergence of thermal states does not
follow from a coupling to an environment, but is a result of the complex
non-equilibrium dynamics in closed systems. We explore ways of measuring the
relevant signatures of thermalization in this analogue quantum simulation of a
relaxation process, exploiting the possibilities offered by optical
superlattices.
