Free energies of static three quark systems

Abstract

We study the behaviour of free energies of baryonic systems composed of three heavy quarks on the lattice in SU(3) pure gauge theory at finite temperature. For all temperatures above $T_c$ we find that the connected part of the singlet (decuplet) free energy of the three quark system is given by the sum of the connected parts of the free energies of $qq$-triplets (-sextets). Using renormalized free energies we can compare free energies in different colour channels as well as those of $qq$- and $qqq$-systems on an unique energy scale.