Stress distribution in quark--anti-quark and single quark systems at nonzero temperature

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the energy distribution around quark-antiquark pairs and single quarks changes at nonzero temperature, revealing flux tube disappearance and Debye screening effects in SU(3) gauge theory.

Contribution

It extends previous vacuum studies to finite temperature, analyzing EMT distribution and flux tube behavior, including the effects of color screening in deconfined phases.

Findings

Flux tube structure disappears at high temperature.

Total stress matches the force from free energy derivative.

Color Debye screening affects EMT distribution in deconfined phase.

Abstract

We explore the distribution of the energy momentum tensor (EMT) around quark--anti-quark and single quark at nonzero temperature in SU(3) Yang-Mills gauge theory by extending our previous study on the EMT distribution in static quark--anti-quark systems in vacuum. We discuss the disappearance of the flux tube structure observed in the vacuum simulation. We investigate the total stress acting on the mid-plane between a quark and an anti-quark and show that it agrees with the force obtained from the derivative of the free energy. The color Debye screening effect in the deconfined phase is also discussed in terms of the EMT distribution.