High Temperature Response Functions and the Non-Abelian Kubo Formula

Abstract

We describe the relationship between time-ordered and retarded response functions in a plasma. We obtain an expression, including the proper $iϵ$-prescription, for the induced current due to hard thermal loops in a non-Abelian theory, thus giving the non-Abelian generalization of the Kubo formula. The result is closely related to the eikonal for a Chern-Simons theory and is relevant for a gauge-invariant description of Landau damping in the quark-gluon plasma at high temperature.

Comments: 14 pages in LaTeX, MIT CTP #2205 and CU-TP #594