Multiparticle production at mid-rapidity in the color-glass condensate

Abstract In this paper, we compute a number of cross sections for the production of multiple particles at mid-rapidity in the semi-dilute / dense regime of the color-glass condensate (CGC) effective field theory. In particular, we present new results for the production of two quark-antiquark pairs (whether the same or different flavors) and for the production of one quark-antiquark pair and a gluon. We also demonstrate the existence of a simple mapping which transforms the cross section to produce a quark-antiquark pair into the corresponding cross section to produce a gluon, which we use to obtain various results and to cross-check them against the literature. We also discuss hadronization effects in the heavy flavor sector, writing explicit expressions for the production of various combinations of D and D ¯ $$ \overline{D} $$ mesons, J/ψ mesons, and light hadrons. The various multiparticle cross sections presented here contain a wealth of information and can be used to study heavy flavor production, charge-dependent correlations, and “collective” flow phenomena arising from initial-state dynamics