The Hagedorn Transition and the Matrix Model for Strings

Abstract

We use the Matrix formalism to investigate what happens to strings above the Hagedorn temperaure. We show that it is not a limiting temperature but a temperature at which the continuum string picture breaks down. We study a collection of $N$ D-0-branes arranged to form a string having $N$ units of light cone momentum. We find that at high temperatures the favoured phase is one where the string world sheet has disappeared and the low energy degrees of freedom consists of $N^2$ massless particles (``gluons''). The nature of the transition is very similar to the deconfinement transition in large-N Yang Mills theories.