Hadronic screening masses in thermal QCD up to the electroweak scale

TL;DR

This paper presents recent lattice QCD results for hadronic screening masses at temperatures from the GeV scale to the electroweak scale, revealing persistent higher-order and non-perturbative effects in thermal QCD.

Contribution

It provides novel lattice computations of hadronic screening masses including baryonic and mesonic modes at unprecedented high temperatures, comparing them with perturbative predictions.

Findings

Persistent higher-order effects observed up to the electroweak scale.

Non-perturbative effects influence screening masses at extreme temperatures.

Lattice results offer insights into QCD's microscopic structure at high temperatures.

Abstract

Novel theoretical and computational strategies have opened the possibility of exploring thermal QCD at the non-perturbative level at unprecedented temperatures, reaching from the GeV scale up to the electroweak scale. A number of observable quantities are now being investigated in this regime. Key ones are the hadronic screening masses, which encode the correlation length of the medium and thus the extent to which strong interactions are screened in a thermal environment. In these proceedings we present recent lattice results for hadronic screening masses, including baryonic modes and preliminary non-static mesonic modes. These results can be compared with predictions from the perturbative expansion in the three-dimensional effective theory valid at asymptotically large temperatures. The comparison reveals persistent higher-order effects including those of non-perturbative origin, up to the electroweak scale, shedding new light on the microscopic structure of QCD at extreme temperatures.