A resummed perturbative estimate for the quarkonium spectral function in hot QCD

Abstract

By making use of the finite-temperature real-time static potential that was introduced and computed to leading non-trivial order in Hard Thermal Loop resummed perturbation theory in recent work, and solving numerically a Schrödinger-type equation, we estimate the quarkonium (in practice, bottomonium) contribution to the spectral function of the electromagnetic current in hot QCD. The spectral function shows a single resonance peak which becomes wider and then disappears as the temperature is increased beyond 450 MeV or so. This behaviour can be compared with recently attempted lattice reconstructions of the same quantity, based on the ''maximum entropy method'', which generically show several peaks. We also specify the dependence of our results on the spatial momentum of the electromagnetic current, as well as on the baryon chemical potential characterising the hot QCD plasma. © SISSA 2007.