Pressure and interaction measure of the gluon plasma

TL;DR

This paper models the thermodynamics of the gluon plasma using world-line integrals and background fields, successfully reproducing lattice data including the peak of the interaction measure near deconfinement.

Contribution

It introduces an analytical approach to calculate gluon plasma thermodynamics incorporating valence gluon interactions and background fields, aligning well with lattice results.

Findings

Analytical calculation of pressure and interaction measure matches lattice data.

Reproduces the peak of the interaction measure near the deconfinement temperature.

Shows valence gluons interact linearly at large distances and behave like a Stefan-Boltzmann plasma at high temperatures.

Abstract

We explore the thermodynamics of the gluon plasma in SU(3) Yang-Mills theory emerging from the non-trivial spatial dynamics of valence gluons. The lattice data suggest that these gluons interact with each other linearly at large spatial separations. At high temperatures, valence gluons should reproduce the pressure of the non-interacting Stefan-Boltzmann plasma along with the leading perturbative correction. These properties of valence gluons can be modeled in terms of the integral over their trajectories. We calculate such a world-line integral analytically and obtain the pressure and the interaction measure $(\varepsilon-3p)/T^4$ of the gluon plasma. Additionally, we account for the contributions of stochastic background fields to these thermodynamic quantities. The results turn out to be in a good agreement with the corresponding lattice data. In particular, the lattice-simulated peak of the interaction measure near the deconfinement critical temperature is reproduced.