Entanglement Dynamics in Splitting Quenches

Entanglement dynamics should provide a salient probe of the quark-hadron transition in heavy-ion collisions (2211.16265). Since the quark-gluon plasma is in a pure state and QCD dynamics are unitary, the final state of a heavy ion collision –a collection of spatially distant hadrons– should also be a highly entangled pure state. How should entanglement entropy evolve for a highly excited field theory state that splits into multiple hadrons? I will discuss recent work on a holographic toy model of the hadronization process based on 1+1D CFTs that break into multiple discrete domains. These "splitting quenches" probe entanglement entropy dynamics at strong coupling. In my talk I will explain some technical details of the calculations and insights gleaned for hadronization.