Covariant variational approach to Yang-Mills Theory: Thermodynamics

Abstract

The thermodynamics of $SU(2)$ Yang-Mills theory in the covariant variational approach is studied by relating the free action density in the background of a non-trivial Polyakov loop to the pressure of the gluon plasma. The correct subtraction of the vacuum contribution in the free action density is argued for. The Poisson resummed expression for the pressure can be evaluated analytically in limiting cases, and shows the correct Stefan-Boltzmann limit at $T\to \infty$, while the limit $T\to 0$ is afflicted by artifacts due to massless modes in the confined phase. Several remedies to remove these artifacts are discussed. Using the numerical $T=0$ solutions for the ghost and gluon propagators in the covariant variational approach as input, the pressure, energy density and interaction strength are calculated and compared to lattice data.

arXiv comment25 pages, 16 pdf figures, pdflatex; fixed a missing factor in the free energy; revised parts of section 4 and 5; added 4 references

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• QCD at finite temperature and chemical potential from Dyson-Schwinger equations
• Variational study of mass generation and deconfinement in Yang-Mills theory
• A Gribov-Zwanziger type action invariant under background gauge transformations
• Perturbative aspects of the deconfinement transition -- Physics beyond the Faddeev-Popov model
• A window on infrared QCD with small expansion parameters
• The effective potential of the Polyakov loop in the Hamiltonian approach to QCD