High-Temperature QCD Static Potential beyond Leading Order

TL;DR

This paper computes higher-order corrections to the real-time QCD static potential at high temperatures, revealing significant effects on both its real and imaginary parts, and compares these with lattice data.

Contribution

It provides the first calculation of next-to-leading order corrections to the high-temperature QCD static potential including both loop and power corrections.

Findings

Significant contributions to the potential's real part

Notable effects on the imaginary part of the potential

Results align with recent lattice QCD data

Abstract

We calculate the leading and next-to-leading corrections to the real-time QCD static potential in a high temperature medium in the region where bound states transit from narrow resonances to wide ones. We find sizable contributions to both the real and the imaginary part of the potential. The calculation involves both loop diagrams calculated in the Hard Thermal Loop (HTL) effective theory and power corrections to the HTL Lagrangian calculated in QCD. We compare our results with recent lattice data.