The High-Temperature Phase of Landau-Gauge Yang-Mills Theory

The properties of the high-temperature phase of Yang-Mills theory in Landau gauge are investigated by extending an earlier study on the infinite-temperature limit to finite temperatures. To this end the Dyson-Schwinger equations for the propagators of the gluon and the Faddeev-Popov ghost are solved analytically in the infrared and numerically at non-vanishing momenta. Gluons, polarized transversely with respect to the heat bath are found to comply with the Gribov-Zwanziger and the Kugo-Ojima scenario, while longitudinally polarized gluons are screened. Therefore the high-temperature phase is strongly interacting. It is furthermore conjectured that Yang-Mills theory undergoes a first-order phase transition. Indications are found that at high temperatures the thermodynamic properties are nearly those of an ideal gas, although long-range interactions prevail.