Non-Abelian Plane-Waves in the Quark-Gluon Plasma

We present new, non-abelian, solutions to the equations of motion which describe the collective excitations of a quark-gluon plasma at high temperature. These solutions correspond to longitudinal and transverse plane-waves propagating through the plasma.Comment: 13 pages, LaTex, preprint Saclay-T94/01

A generating functional for ultrasoft amplitudes in hot QCD

The effective amplitudes for gluon momentum p<<gT in hot QCD exhibit damping as a result of collisions. The whole set of n-point amplitudes is shown to be generated from one functional K(x,y;A), in addition to the induced current j(x;A).Comment: 7 pages, no figure (some comments added

The pressure of QED from the two-loop 2PI effective action

We compute the pressure of hot quantum electrodynamics from the two-loop truncation of the 2PI effective action. Since the 2PI resummation guarantees gauge-fixing independence only up to the order of the truncation, our result for the pressure presents a gauge dependent contribution of O(e^4). We numerically characterize the credibility of this gauge-dependent calculation and find that the uncertainty due to gauge parameter dependence is under control for xi<1. Our calculation also suggests that the choice of Landau gauge may minimize gauge-dependent effects.Comment: 15 latex pages with 3 figure

Correlation functions and dissipation in hot QCD

A recently proposed generating functional allows the construction of the full set of n-point Green functions in QCD at high temperature and at distances larger than 1/gT. One may then learn how the system maintains its thermal equilibrium in the quantum field theory approach, i.e. which process compensates for the important dissipation due to collisions. This system may be characterized by quantities which have a classical limit. One finds that the fluctuations of the coloured field are not gaussian ones. A comparison is made with the semi-classical approach where a random noise is the source of fluctuations.Comment: 21 pages, latex 2e, no figure Comments added in Introduction, in Sec

Ultrasoft Amplitudes in Hot QCD

By using the Boltzmann equation describing the relaxation of colour excitations in the QCD plasma, we obtain effective amplitudes for the ultrasoft colour fields carrying momenta of order $g^2 T$. These amplitudes are of the same order in $g$ as the hard thermal loops (HTL), which they generalize by including the effects of the collisions among the hard particles. The ultrasoft amplitudes share many of the remarkable properties of the HTL's: they are gauge invariant, obey simple Ward identities, and, in the static limit, reduce to the usual Debye mass for the electric fields. However, unlike the HTL's, which correspond effectively to one-loop diagrams, the ultrasoft amplitudes resum an infinite number of diagrams of the bare perturbation theory. By solving the linearized Boltzmann equation, we obtain a formula for the colour conductivity which accounts for the contributions of the hard and soft modes beyond the leading logarithmic approximation.Comment: 38 pages, 10 figures, LaTeX. An extension of the previous results is included (in Sec. 4.2); also, some minor modifications here and there. Final version, to appear in Nucl. Phys.

Perturbation theory and non-perturbative renormalization flow in scalar field theory at finite temperature

We use the non-perturbative renormalization group to clarify some features of perturbation theory in thermal field theory. For the specific case of the scalar field theory with O(N) symmetry, we solve the flow equations within the local potential approximation. This approximation reproduces the perturbative results for the screening mass and the pressure up to order g^3, and starts to differ at order g^4. The method allows a smooth extrapolation to the regime where the coupling is not small, very similar to that obtained from a simple self-consistent approximation.Comment: 42 pages, 19 figures; v2: typos corrected and references added, version accepted for publication in Nucl. Phys.

Renormalization of \Phi-derivable approximations in scalar field theories

We discuss the renormalization of \Phi-derivable approximations for scalar field theories. In such approximations, the self-energy is obtained as the solution of a self-consistent equation which effectively resums infinite subsets of diagrams of perturbation theory. We show that a consistent renormalization can be carried out, and we provide an explicit construction of the counterterms needed to eliminate the subdivergences. The counterterms are calculated from the solution of an auxiliary gap equation which determines the leading asymptotic part of the self-energy. This auxiliary gap equation may be chosen as the gap equation of the massless theory at zero temperature. We verify explicitly that the counterterms determined at zero temperature are sufficient to eliminate the divergences which occur in finite temperature calculations.Comment: 69 pages, 26 figure

Meson correlation functions in a QCD plasma

The temporal pseudoscalar meson correlation function in a QCD plasma is investigated in a range of temperatures exceeding $T_c$ and yet of experimental interest. Only the flavour-singlet channel is considered and the imaginary time formalism is employed for the finite temperature calculations. The behaviour of the meson spectral function and of the temporal correlator is first studied in the HTL approximation, where one replaces the free thermal quark propagators with the HTL resummed ones. This procedure satisfactory describes the soft fermionic modes, but its application to the propagation of hard quarks is not reliable. An improved version of the so-called NLA scheme, which allows a better treatment of the hard fermionic modes, is then proposed. The impact of the improved NLA on the pseudoscalar temporal correlator is investigated.Comment: 35 pages, 15 figure

Heavy ion collisions: puzzles and hopes

This talk is a brief summary of some theoretical issues in the field of hot and dense QCD matter and ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions.Comment: 6 pages, invited talk presented at the conference "Physics at the LHC 2010", DESY, June 7-12, 2010 Minor corrections in reference