Screening Masses of Hot SU(2) Gauge Theory from the 3d Adjoint Higgs Model

Abstract

We study the Landau gauge propagators of the lattice SU(2) 3d adjoint Higgs model, considered as an effective theory of high temperature 4d SU(2) gauge theory. From the long distance behaviour of the propagators we extract the screening masses. The propagators are studied both in the symmetric and the broken phases of the 3d Higgs model. It is shown that the pole masses extracted from the propagators in the symmetric phase agree well with the screening masses obtained recently in finite temperature SU(2) theory, while propagators measured in the broken phase show quite a different behaviour. This suggest that the symmetric phase of the 3d model corresponds to the deconfined phase of the 4d SU(2) gauge theory. The relation of the propagator masses to the masses extracted from gauge invariant correlators and the mass gap of pure 3d SU(2) gauge theory is also discussed.