Multiperipheral model of meson and baryon multiplicities

We construct a simple coupled-channel multiperipheral model of mesons and baryons in order to calculate their respective multiplicities at high energy. Requiring total cross sections to have their usual Regge behavior constrains the baryon multiplicity to be small, with an upper bound not far from the experimental value. More precise results are difficult to obtain in this context. Arguments are given that this result will be valid in more realistic models.