Yang-Mills theories at finite temperature quantized in linear covariant gauges: gauge copies and semi-non-perturbative effects

TL;DR

This paper investigates how finite temperature affects gauge fixing and confinement in Yang-Mills theories quantized in linear covariant gauges, incorporating Gribov copies and thermal mass effects to identify different confinement phases.

Contribution

It extends the Gribov copy removal framework to finite temperature and introduces a hybrid approach with thermal masses for a self-consistent analysis.

Findings

Identifies three distinct phases: confinement, partial confinement, and deconfinement.

Shows the interplay between Gribov copies and thermal effects influences phase structure.

Provides a semi-non-perturbative treatment of gauge theories at finite temperature.

Abstract

We consider four-dimensional Euclidean Yang-Mills theories quantized in the maximal Abelian and linear covariant gauges at finite temperature. Non-perturbatively, the Faddeev-Popov procedure must be improved to take into account the existence of the so-called Gribov copies. Tapping on previous results about the elimination of infinitesimal Gribov copies in maximal Abelian and linear covariant gauges at zero temperature, we explore the interplay between finite temperature effects and the removal of gauge copies. We focus in a hybrid approach where the thermal masses are derived through perturbative propagators as a stepping stone for a self-consistent treatment. The resulting action collects the effects of the elimination of infinitesimal Gribov copies as well as the thermal masses. We verify the existence of three different phases for the gluonic degrees of freedom; one of complete confinement at low temperatures, an intermediate one of partial confinement, and one of complete deconfinement at high temperatures.