One-loop analytic structure of the deep-infrared Landau-gauge gluon propagator at finite temperature

Abstract

With the aim of looking for signatures of deconfinement, the poles and the spectral function of the Landau-gauge gluon propagator are investigated at one loop, vanishing spatial momentum and finite temperature within the framework of the screened massive expansion of pure Yang-Mills theory and of full QCD. When computed using both temperature-independent parameters optimized by principles of gauge invariance and temperature-dependent parameters obtained by fitting lattice data at zero Matsubara frequency, the propagator is found to have a pair of complex-conjugate poles in its squared complexified frequency variable throughout the considered temperature interval, ranging from $T=0$ to temperatures $T>T_{c}$ of interest to quark-gluon plasma phenomenology. The spectral function is found to violate positivity and not to develop sharp peaks over said temperature interval. In full QCD, a simple model is used for mass generation in the infrared quark sector; the dependence of our results on the quark masses is discussed.