Possible evidence for the mass shift of $\eta$' meson at finite temperature

Abstract

Topological charge distributions of SU(3) gauge theory at finite temperature are calculated on the lattice with high statistics in a manner of free from the uncertainty of $\beta$-function. Clear temperature dependence of the topological charge distribution is obtained. Combining the present result with the recent study about the relation between the masses of $\eta$ meson system and the gauge field topology, we obtain $m_{\eta'}(T)/m_{\eta'}(0) = 0.86 \pm 0.02$ and $0.69 \pm 0.01$ for $T=0.75 T_c$ and $T=0.93 T_c$, respectively. The result shows the first clear evidence of the mass shift of $\eta'$ meson at finite temperature.