# Quasigluon lifetime and confinement from first principles

## TL;DR

This paper calculates the gluon mass and lifetime at finite temperature in pure SU(3) Yang-Mills theory, providing a first-principles proof of confinement and analyzing the temperature dependence of gluon damping.

## Contribution

It introduces a first-principles method to evaluate gluon properties across the deconfinement transition using a finite temperature extension of a massive expansion.

## Key findings

- Gluon lifetime is finite even at zero temperature, confirming confinement.
- Damping rate increases linearly with temperature above the transition.
- Provides a microscopic proof of gluon confinement from first principles.

## Abstract

The mass and the lifetime of a gluon are evaluated from first principles at finite temperature across the deconfinement transition of pure SU(3) Yang-Mills theory, by a direct calculation of the pole of the propagator in the complex plane, using the finite temperature extension of a massive expansion in the Landau gauge. Even at T=0 the quasigluon lifetime is finite and the gluon is canceled from the asymptotic states, yielding a microscopic proof of confinement from first principles. Above the transition the damping rate is a linear increasing function of temperature as predicted by standard perturbation theory.