Abstract: Two-particle azimuthal correlations serve as a powerful tool for probing gluon saturation dynamics in collider experiments. In the kinematic regime where the two particles are produced at forward rapidity but remain nearly back-to-back in transverse momentum, the differential cross-section calculated within the Color Glass Condensate (CGC) effective field theory (EFT) reveals a small- transverse-momentum-dependent (TMD)-like factorization. This TMD-CGC correspondence was first established at leading order (LO) in [1], where gluon TMD operators (with appropriate gauge link structure) were shown to arise from Wilson line correlators in the CGC framework.
In this seminar, I will demonstrate that the CGC-TMD correspondence holds at next-to-leading order (NLO) [2], highlithing the interplay between small-x factorization and Sudakov (soft) resummation. I will then extend this correspondence to sea quark-initiated channels at small-x [3]. If time allows, I will discuss the extension of these ideas to particle production in the target fragmentation region and the connection with fracture functions [4].
[1] F. Dominguez, C. Marquet, B-W. Xiao, and F. Yuan. Phys.Rev.D 83 (2011) 10500
[2] P. Caucal, F. Salazar, B. Schenke, T. Stebel, and R. Venugopalan. Phys.Rev.Lett.
[3] P. Caucal, E. Iancu, F. Salazar, and F. Yuan. [work in progress]
[4] P. Caucal, F. Salazar. [preprint: 2502.02634]