Year: 2000
Type: article
Abstract: Effective theories for the thermal Wilson line are constructed in an $\mathrm{SU}(N)$ gauge theory at nonzero temperature. I propose that the order of the deconfining phase transition for $Z(N)$ Wilson lines is governed by the behavior of $\mathrm{SU}(N)$ Wilson lines. In a mean field theory, the free energy in the deconfined phase is controlled by the condensate for $Z(N)$ Wilson lines. Numerical simulations on the lattice, and the mean field theory for $Z(3)$ Wilson lines, suggest that about any finite temperature transition in QCD the dominant correlation length increases by a large, uniform factor, of order five.
Author: Robert D. Pisarski
Institution: Brookhaven National Laboratory
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2053006093