Hard Thermal Loops, Quark-Gluon Plasma Response, and T=0 Topology

Abstract

I outline various derivations of the non-Abelian Kubo equation, which governs the response of a quark-gluon plasma to hard thermal perturbations. In the static case, it is proven that gauge theories do not support hard thermal solitons. Explicit solutions are constructed within an SU(2) Ansatz and they are shown to support the general result. The time-dependent problem, i.e., non-Abelian plasma waves, has not been completely solved. We express and motivate the hope that the intimate relations linking the gauge-invariance condition for hard thermal loops to the equation of motion for T=0, topological Chern-Simons theory may yield new insight into this field.