Thermodynamics of Constituent Quarks

Abstract

We investigate the thermal behavior of quarks and antiquarks interacting via a temperature-dependent linear potential. The quarks are constituent quarks with dynamically generated masses from the background linear $\sigma$-model.We find a transition from a system of bound mesons to a correlated quark gas at the same temperature as the chiral transition temperature.

Comments: 24 pages, 5 Postscript figures, uses article.sty, epsf.sty, epsfig.sty