The CMS collaboration at the LHC has reported a remarkable and unexpected phenomenon in very high-multiplicity high energy proton-proton collisions: a positive correlation between two particles produced at similar azimuthal angles, spanning a large r
ange in rapidity. We suggest that this ridge-like correlation may be a reflection of the rare events generated by the collision of aligned flux tubes connecting the valence quarks in the wave functions of the colliding protons. The spray of particles resulting from the approximate line source produced in such inelastic collisions then gives rise to events with a strong correlation between particles produced over a large range of both positive and negative rapidity. We suggest an additional variable that is sensitive to such a line source which is related to a commonly used measure, ellipticity.
Efforts to place limits on deviations from canonical formulations of electromagnetism and gravity have probed length scales increasing dramatically over time.Historically, these studies have passed through three stages: (1) Testing the power in the i
nverse-square laws of Newton and Coulomb, (2) Seeking a nonzero value for the rest mass of photon or graviton, (3) Considering more degrees of freedom, allowing mass while preserving explicit gauge or general-coordinate invariance. Since our previous review the lower limit on the photon Compton wavelength has improved by four orders of magnitude, to about one astronomical unit, and rapid current progress in astronomy makes further advance likely. For gravity there have been vigorous debates about even the concept of graviton rest mass. Meanwhile there are striking observations of astronomical motions that do not fit Einstein gravity with visible sources. Cold dark matter (slow, invisible classical particles) fits well at large scales. Modified Newtonian dynamics provides the best phenomenology at galactic scales. Satisfying this phenomenology is a requirement if dark matter, perhaps as invisible classical fields, could be correct here too. Dark energy {it might} be explained by a graviton-mass-like effect, with associated Compton wavelength comparable to the radius of the visible universe. We summarize significant mass limits in a table.
The Aharonov-Bohm effect is the prime example of a zero-field-strength configuration where a non-trivial vector potential acquires physical significance, a typical quantum mechanical effect. We consider an extension of the traditional A-B problem, by
studying a two-dimensional medium filled with many point-like vortices. Systems like this might be present within a Type II superconducting layer in the presence of a strong magnetic field perpendicular to the layer, and have been studied in different limits. We construct an explicit solution for the wave function of a scalar particle moving within one such layer when the vortices occupy the sites of a square lattice and have all the same strength, equal to half of the flux quantum. From this construction we infer some general characteristics of the spectrum, including the conclusion that such a flux array produces a repulsive barrier to an incident low-energy charged particle, so that the penetration probability decays exponentially with distance from the edge.
