Thermal variational principle and gauge fields

Abstract

A Feynman-Jensen version of the thermal variational principle is applied to hot gauge fields, Abelian as well as non-Abelian: scalar electrodynamics (without scalar self-coupling) and the gluon plasma. The perturbatively known self-energies are shown to derive by variation from a free quadratic (''Gaussian'') trial Lagrangian. Independence of the covariant gauge fixing parameter is reached (within the order $g^3$ studied) after a reformulation of the partition function such that it depends on only even powers of the gauge field. Also static properties (Debye screening) are reproduced this way. But because of the present need to expand the variational functional, the method falls short of its potential nonperturbative power.

36 pages, LaTeX, no figures. Updated version: new title, section on static properties and some references added

References in corpus (24)

• QCD Phenomenology based on a Chiral Effective Lagrangian
• Generic Rules for High Temperature Dimensional Reduction and Their Application to the Standard Model
• Effective Field Theory Approach to High-Temperature Thermodynamics
• The Three-Loop Free Energy for Pure Gauge QCD
• The Free Energy of Hot Gauge Theories with Fermions Through g^5
• The non-Abelian Debye screening length beyond leading order
• Phase Structure and Phase Transition of the SU(2) Higgs Model in Three Dimensions
• The weak electroweak phase transition
• Solution to the Perturbative Infrared Catastrophe of Hot Gauge Theories
• A Self-consistent Inclusion of Magnetic Screening for the Quark-Gluon Plasma
• Lifetime of quasiparticles in hot QED plasmas
• Analytic results for the effective action
• Resummations in Hot Scalar Electrodynamics
• The Gluon Propagator at High Temperature
• THERMODYNAMICS OF THE ELECTROWEAK PHASE TRANSITION
• Threshhold Singularities and the Magnetic Mass in Hot QCD
• Gluon Plasma Frequency -- the Next-to-Leading Order Term
• Asymptotic Behavior of the Correlator for Polyakov Loops
• The Infrared Sensitivity of Screening and Damping in a Quark-Gluon Plasma
• Hard Thermal Loops in a Moving Plasma and a Magnetic Mass Term
• Non-perturbative aspects of screening phenomena in abelian and non abelian gauge theories
• On the Gluon Plasmon Self-Energy at O(g)
• Perfect 3-Dimensional Lattice Actions for 4-Dimensional Quantum Field Theories at Finite Temperature
• Abelian versus Non-Abelian Higgs Model in Three Dimensions

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Resummation of phi^4 free energy up to an arbitrary order