Static screening lengths in the gluon plasma

Abstract

We report results of an extensive numerical simulation in lattice gauge theory to study various static screening lengths in a finite-temperature pure gluon plasma. Measurements are made for fixed triplet charges (Wilson lines) and a variety of local operators near and above the phase transition for lattices with $N_t$=4, 6, and 8. We find evidence for a sharp rise in the Wilson-line screening length near the phase transition, but not in screening lengths associated with other operators. We also find evidence for a possible scaling of the inverse screening lengths with temperature above the phase transition. Our results support the proposition that the gluon plasma has a complex structure, and suggest that its long-range nonhydrodynamic excitations just above the phase transition are associated with a color-singlet plasmonlike mode.