Static quark-antiquark pairs at finite temperature

Nora Brambilla, Jacopo Ghiglieri, Antonio Vairo, and Péter Petreczky
Phys. Rev. D 78, 014017 – Published 21 July 2008

Abstract

In a framework that makes close contact with modern effective field theories for nonrelativistic bound states at zero temperature, we study the real-time evolution of a static quark-antiquark pair in a medium of gluons and light quarks at finite temperature. For temperatures ranging from values larger to smaller than the inverse distance of the quark and antiquark, 1/r, and at short distances, we derive the potential between the two static sources, and calculate their energy and thermal decay width. Two mechanisms contribute to the thermal decay width: the imaginary part of the gluon self-energy induced by the Landau damping phenomenon, and the quark-antiquark color-singlet to color-octet thermal breakup. Parametrically, the first mechanism dominates for temperatures such that the Debye mass is larger than the binding energy, while the latter, which we quantify here for the first time, dominates for temperatures such that the Debye mass is smaller than the binding energy. If the Debye mass is of the same order as 1/r, our results are in agreement with a recent calculation of the static Wilson loop at finite temperature. For temperatures smaller than 1/r, we find new contributions to the potential, both real and imaginary, which may be relevant to understand the onset of heavy quarkonium dissociation in a thermal medium.

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  • Received 9 April 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.78.014017

©2008 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Nora Brambilla, Jacopo Ghiglieri, and Antonio Vairo

  • Dipartimento di Fisica dell’Università di Milano and INFN via Celoria 16, 20133 Milan, Italy

Péter Petreczky

  • RIKEN-BNL Research Center and Physics Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA

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Issue

Vol. 78, Iss. 1 — 1 July 2008

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