The force-force-correlator in hot QCD perturbatively and from the lattice

Abstract

High-energy particles traversing a medium experience modified dispersion. In the Quark-Gluon Plasma, such dispersion affects jet propagation and transport properties and should be determined better. Above $\sim 2T_c$ we expect strongly coupled infrared behavior and perturbative ultraviolet behavior, allowing a perturbative matching to an effective theory called EQCD, which can be studied non-perturbatively. We study the relevant non-local operator in EQCD at next-to-leading order which allows for a complete EQCD-to-lattice match and prepares the groundwork for a matching between EQCD and full QCD. Our results in EQCD show remarkable agreement between perturbation theory and the lattice in the expected regime.

Comments: 34 pages, 3 figures, 4 tables. Updates of (i) the NLO perturbative result in eq. (4.12), (ii) the numerical integration in eq. (5.2), (iii) numerical values in tabs. 1 and 3, and (iv) figures. Conclusions unchanged