Coulomb gauge Yang-Mills theory at finite temperatures: glueballs versus quasi-gluons

TL;DR

This paper develops a variational approach to finite temperature Yang-Mills theory in Coulomb gauge, analyzing glueball and quasi-gluon states to compute thermodynamic quantities and discuss phase transitions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel variational framework for finite temperature Yang-Mills theory in Coulomb gauge, incorporating glueball and quasi-gluon ensembles.

Findings

Computed energy density and pressure matching lattice results.

Identified signatures of a phase transition.

Compared SU(2) and SU(3) gauge groups.

Abstract

We consider a variational approach to the finite temperature Yang-Mills theory in the Coulomb gauge. The partition function is computed in the ensemble of glueballs and quasi-gluons which emerge as eigenstates of the Coulomb gauge Hamiltonian. We compute the energy density and pressure and compare with results of lattice computations for both SU(2) and SU(3). The emergence of a phase transition is discussed.