Heavy quark free energies, potentials and the renormalized Polyakov loop

We discuss the renormalized free energy of a heavy quark anti-quark pair in the color singlet channel for quenched and full QCD at finite temperature. The temperature and mass dependence, as well as its short distance behavior is analyzed. Using the free energies we calculate the heavy quark potential and entropy in quenched QCD. The asymptotic large distance behavior of the free energy is used to define the non-perturbatively renormalized Polyakov loop which is well behaved in the continuum limit. String breaking is studied in the color singlet channel in 2-flavor QCD.Comment: 3 pages, Lattice2003(nonzero

An new order parameter with renormalized Polyakov loops

It is well established that physical quantities like the heavy quark potentials get temperature independent at sufficiently short distances. As a first application of this feature we suggest a new order parameter for the confinement/deconfinement phase transition. Our investigations are based on recent lattice studies.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures, contribution to 'Statistical QCD', Bielefeld, August 26-30, 200

Renormalized quark-anti-quark free energy

We present results on the renormalized quark-anti-quark free energy in SU(3) gauge theory at finite temperatures. We discuss results for the singlet, octet and colour averaged free energies and comment on thermal relations which allow to extract separately the potential energy and entropy from the free energy.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, To appear in the proceedings of Workshop on Strong and Electroweak Matter (SEWM 2002), Heidelberg, Germany, 2-5 Oct 200

Static quark anti-quark free energy and the running coupling at finite temperature

We analyze the free energy of a static quark anti-quark pair in quenched QCD at short and large distances. From this we deduce running couplings, g^2(r,T), and determine the length scale that separates at high temperature the short distance perturbative regime from the large distance non-perturbative regime in the QCD plasma phase. Ambiguities in the definition of a coupling beyond the perturbative regime are discussed in their relation to phenomenological considerations on heavy quark bound states in the quark gluon plasma. Our analysis suggests that it is more appropriate to characterize the non-perturbative properties of the QCD plasma phase close to T_c in terms remnants of the confinement part of the QCD force rather than a strong Coulombic force.Comment: 8 pages, 9 EPS-files, revtex

Short distance physics with heavy quark potentials

We present lattice studies of heavy quark potentials in the quenched approximation of QCD at finite temperatures. Both, the color singlet and color averaged potentials are calculated. While the potentials are well known at large distances, we give a detailed analysis of their short distance behavior (from 0.015 fm to 1 fm) near the critical temperature. At these distances we expect that the T-dependent potentials go over into the zero temperature potential. Indeed, we find evidences that the temperature influence gets suppressed and the potentials starts to become a unique function of the underlying distance scale. We use this feature to normalize the heavy quark potentials at short distances and extract the free energy of the quark system in a gluonic heat bath.Comment: Lattice2001(hightemp), 3 pages, 2 figure

Heavy Quarkonia and Quark Drip Lines in Quark-Gluon Plasma

Using the potential model and thermodynamical quantities obtained in lattice gauge calculations, we determine the spontaneous dissociation temperatures of color-singlet quarkonia and the `quark drip lines' which separate the region of bound $Q\bar Q$ states from the unbound region. The dissociation temperatures of $J/\psi$ and $\chi_b$ in quenched QCD are found to be 1.62$T_c$ and $1.18T_c$ respectively, in good agreement with spectral function analyses. The dissociation temperature of $J/\psi$ in full QCD with 2 flavors is found to be 1.42$T_c$. For possible bound quarkonium states with light quarks, the characteristics of the quark drip lines severely limit the stable region close to the phase transition temperature. Bound color-singlet quarkonia with light quarks may exist very near the phase transition temperature if their effective quark mass is of the order of 300-400 MeV and higher.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, in LaTex, invited talk presented at the International Conference on Strangeness in Quark Matter, UCLA, March 26-31, 200

Observation of modified hadronization in relativistic Au+Au collisions: a promising signature for deconfined quark-gluon matter

Measurements of identified particles from Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV are reviewed. Emphasis is placed on nuclear modification, baryon-to-meson ratios, and elliptic flow at intermediate transverse momentum ($1.5 < p_T < 5$ GeV/c). Possible connections between (1) these measurements, (2) the running coupling for static quark anti-quark pairs at finite temperature, and (3) the creation of a deconfined quark-gluon phase are presented. Modifications to hadronization in Au+Au collisions are proposed as a likely signature for the creation of deconfined colored matter.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, invited talk at the Strange Quark Matter 2004 conference, Cape Town, South Afric

Lattice calculations of meson correlators and spectral functions at finite temperature

I review recent progress in relating meson spectral function to imaginary time correlation function at finite temperature calculated on isotropic as well as on anisotropic lattices. Special attention is payed for the lattice artifacts present in calculation of meson spectral functions. Results in the case of light quarks as well as heavy quarks are reviewed which indicate in particular that even in the chiral limit meson spectral functions have non-trivial structure and the ground state quarkonia survive up to temperature 1.5T_cComment: Invited plenary talk presented at SQM03 (Atlantic Beach, March 12-17, 2003), 10 pages LaTeX, uses iopams.sty, iopart.cl

Colour Deconfinement and Quarkonium Binding

At high temperatures, strongly interacting matter becomes a plasma of deconfined quarks and gluons. In statistical QCD, deconfinement and the properties of the resulting quark-gluon plasma can be investigated by studying the in-medium behaviour of heavy quark bound states. In high energy nuclear interactions, quarkonia probe different aspects of the medium formed in the collision. We survey the results of recent charmonium production studies in SPS and RHIC experiments.Comment: 50 pages, 53 figures; revised section 6.

Heavy Quarkonium Physics

This report is the result of the collaboration and research effort of the Quarkonium Working Group over the last three years. It provides a comprehensive overview of the state of the art in heavy-quarkonium theory and experiment, covering quarkonium spectroscopy, decay, and production, the determination of QCD parameters from quarkonium observables, quarkonia in media, and the effects on quarkonia of physics beyond the Standard Model. An introduction to common theoretical and experimental tools is included. Future opportunities for research in quarkonium physics are also discussed.Comment: xviii + 487 pages, 260 figures. The full text is also available at the Quarkonium Working Group web page: http://www.qwg.to.infn.i