Heavy quark potentials in quenched QCD at high temperature -: art. no. 034021

Heavy quark potentials are investigated at high temperatures. The temperature range covered by the analysis extends from T values just below the deconfinement temperature up to about 4T(c) in the deconfined phase. We simulated the pure gauge sector of QCD on lattices with temporal extents of 4, 6, and 8, with spatial volumes of 32(3). On the smallest lattice a tree level improved action was employed, while in the other two cases the standard Wilson action was used. Below T-c we find a temperature-dependent logarithmic term contributing to the confinement potential, and observe a string tension which decreases with rising temperature but retains a finite value at the deconfinement transition. Above T-c the potential is Debye screened; however, simple perturbative predictions do not apply.