  We study the effect of strong longitudinal color fields (SCF) in p+p
reactions up to Large Hadron Collider energies in the framework of the
HIJING/BBbar v2.0 model that combines (collinear factorized) pQCD multiple
minijet production with soft longitudinal string excitation and hadronization.
The default vacuum string tension, kappa0 = 1 GeV/fm, is replaced by an
effective power law energy dependent string tension, that increases
monotonically with center-of-mass energy. The exponent 0.06 is found sufficient
to reproduce well the energy dependence of multiparticle observables in RHIC,
Tevatron, as well as recent LHC data. This exponent is found to be only half of
that predicted by the Color Glass Saturation model, lambda(CGC)=0.115, where
gluon fusion multiparticle production mechanisms are assumed. In HIJING/BBbar
v2.0, the rapid growth of central-rapidity density with energy is due to the
interplay of copious minijet production and increasing SCF contributions. The
large (strange)baryon-to-meson ratios measured at Tevatron energies are well
described. A significant enhancement of these ratios is predicted up to the
highest LHC energy (14 TeV). The effect of JJbar loops and SCF on
baryon-anti-baryon asymmetry and its relation to baryon number transport is
also discussed.
