Chern-Simons and WZNW Theories and the Quark-Gluon Plasma

Abstract

Summation over hard thermal loops, by themselves and as insertions in higher order Feynman diagrams, is important in thermal perturbation theory for Quantum Chromodynamics, so that all contributions of a given order in the coupling constant can be consistently taken into account. I review some of the basic properties of hard thermal loops and how the generating functional for them is related to the eikonal for a Chern-Simons gauge theory, and using an auxiliary field, to the gauged Wess-Zumino-Novikov-Witten action. The Hamiltonian analysis of the effective action and a discussion of plasma waves are given. It is also pointed out that a possible expression for the magnetic mass term can be written in a closely related way.