Quark mass dependence of thermal excitations in QCD in one-loop approximation

TL;DR

This paper investigates how quark masses influence the thermal excitation properties of gluons and quarks in QCD using a one-loop approximation, considering various coupling strengths and gauge dependencies.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of quark mass effects on thermal excitations in QCD within the one-loop framework, including gauge dependence and higher-order estimates.

Findings

Quark mass significantly affects thermal excitation dispersion relations.

Gauge dependence is analyzed and discussed.

Higher-order effects are estimated using a Dyson-Schwinger approach.

Abstract

A comprehensive determination of the quark mass dependence in the dispersion relations of thermal excitations of gluons and quarks in non-Abelian gauge theory (QCD) is presented for the one-loop approximation in Feynman gauge. Larger values of the coupling are admitted, and the gauge dependence is discussed. In a Dyson-Schwinger type approach, the effect of higher orders is estimated for asymptotic thermal masses.