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Hadronic screening masses in thermal QCD up to the electroweak scale

Marco Cè, Leonardo Giusti, Michele Pepe, Pietro Rescigno

Abstract

Novel theoretical and computational strategies have opened the possibility of exploring thermal QCD at the non-perturbative level at unprecedented temperatures, reaching from the GeV scale up to the electroweak scale. A number of observable quantities are now being investigated in this regime. Key ones are the hadronic screening masses, which encode the correlation length of the medium and thus the extent to which strong interactions are screened in a thermal environment. In these proceedings we present recent lattice results for hadronic screening masses, including baryonic modes and preliminary non-static mesonic modes. These results can be compared with predictions from the perturbative expansion in the three-dimensional effective theory valid at asymptotically large temperatures. The comparison reveals persistent higher-order effects including those of non-perturbative origin, up to the electroweak scale, shedding new light on the microscopic structure of QCD at extreme temperatures.

Hadronic screening masses in thermal QCD up to the electroweak scale

Abstract

Novel theoretical and computational strategies have opened the possibility of exploring thermal QCD at the non-perturbative level at unprecedented temperatures, reaching from the GeV scale up to the electroweak scale. A number of observable quantities are now being investigated in this regime. Key ones are the hadronic screening masses, which encode the correlation length of the medium and thus the extent to which strong interactions are screened in a thermal environment. In these proceedings we present recent lattice results for hadronic screening masses, including baryonic modes and preliminary non-static mesonic modes. These results can be compared with predictions from the perturbative expansion in the three-dimensional effective theory valid at asymptotically large temperatures. The comparison reveals persistent higher-order effects including those of non-perturbative origin, up to the electroweak scale, shedding new light on the microscopic structure of QCD at extreme temperatures.
Paper Structure (6 sections, 12 equations, 3 figures)

This paper contains 6 sections, 12 equations, 3 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Effective field theory description of QCD at high temperature
  3. Lattice methodology
  4. The hyperfine splitting
  5. Mesonic screening masses for n>0
  6. Conclusions and outlook

Figures (3)

  • Figure 1: Radial probability density of wave function. The vertical line indicates the radial coordinate at which non-perturbative contributions start to be relevant, $r_{\textrm{np}}=1/g_{\mathrm{E}}^2\simeq 1/\sigma$, for three different values of the QCD coupling $\hat{g}^2=0.17$, $0.36$ and $1.00$, and corresponding temperatures $T=6e20\GeV$, 4e8 and 100.
  • Figure 2: Hyperfine splitting in the $n=0$ sector as a function of $\hat{g}^4$, with point-sources data published in ref. DallaBrida:2021ddx and preliminary wall-sources data presented here, compared to the leading-order perturbative spin-splitting result published in ref. Ce:2025ihd and discussed in section \ref{['sec:hyperfine']}.
  • Figure 3: Left: screening masses results as a function of the QCD coupling (and in turn temperature) for pseudoscalar and vector $n=0$ screening masses DallaBrida:2021ddx and baryonic (nucleon) screening masses Giusti:2024ohu. Right: preliminary new results presented in these proceedings for additional $n=0$ and $n=1$ mesonic screening masses.