Lattice QCD computation of the SU(3) String Tension critical curve

TL;DR

This study uses lattice QCD simulations to analyze how the string tension in SU(3) gauge theory varies with temperature, revealing its decline near half the critical temperature.

Contribution

It provides a detailed computation of the critical curve of the string tension across a range of temperatures using improved gauge-invariant methods.

Findings

String tension decreases significantly near 0.5 Tc

Used 57 lattice configurations across multiple parameters

Enhanced signal detection with multihit procedure

Abstract

We investigate the critical curve of the string tension sigma(T) as a function of temperature in quenched gauge invariant SU(3) lattice gauge theory. We extract sigma(T) from the colour averaged free energy of a static quark-antiquark pair. To compute the free energy, we utilize a pair of gauge invariant Polyakov loop and antiloop correlations, and apply the multihit procedure to enhance the signal to noise ratio. We find that the string tension departs from the zero temperature sigma(0) at T close to 0.5 Tc. We cover the relevant temperature range from 0.5 Tc up to the confinement temperature Tc using 57 different sets of pure gauge lattice configurations with four temporal extensions (4,6,8,12), different beta and a spatial volume of 48^3 in lattice units.