On the Convergence of Perturbative QCD at High Temperature

1995/08/30 by Eric Braaten, Agustin Nieto, Agustín Nieto · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Chiral perturbation theory #Coupling constant #Gluon #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Mathematical physics #Order (exchange) #Particle physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Perturbation theory (quantum mechanics) #Perturbative QCD #Physics #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #Quantum chromodynamics #Quark #Quark–gluon plasma #hep-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.76.1417

published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 1417 (1996) · 12 pages, LaTeX

arxiv created 1995/08/30 · openalex publication_date 1996/02/26 · arxiv updated 2016/08/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

The free energy for QCD at high temperature T is calculated to order g⁵ using effective-field-theory methods to separate the contributions from the momentum scales 2\ensuremathπT and gT. The effects of the scale 2\ensuremathπT enter through the coefficients in the effective Lagrangian for the 3--dimensional effective theory obtained by dimensional reduction. The perturbation series for these coefficients seem to be well behaved if the running coupling constant is sufficiently small: \ensuremathα_s(2\ensuremathπT)\ensuremath≪1. For the contribution to the free energy from the scale gT, the perturbation series is well behaved only if \ensuremathα_s(2\ensuremathπT) is an order of magnitude smaller. The implication for applications of perturbative QCD to the quark-gluon plasma is briefly discussed.

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