Improvement of the hot QCD pressure by the minimal sensitivity criterion

Abstract

The principles of minimal sensitivity (PMS) criterion is applied to the perturbative free energy density, or pressure, of hot QCD, which include the $\sim g_s^6 \ln g_s$ and part of the $\sim g_s^6$ terms. Applications are made separately to the short- and long-distance parts of the pressure. Comparison with the lattice results, at low temperatures, shows that the resultant `` optimal'' approximants are substantially improved when compared to the $\bar{MS}$ results. In particular, for the realistic case of three quark flavors, the `` optimal'' approximants are comparable with the lattice results.