Complex heavy quark potential at finite temperature from lattice QCD

Authors: Alexander Rothkopf, Tetsuo Hatsuda, Shoichi Sasaki

Abstract:We calculate for the first time the complex potential between a heavy quark and antiquark at finite temperature across the deconfinement transition in lattice QCD. The real and imaginary part of the potential at each separation distance $r$ is obtained from the spectral function of the thermal Wilson loop. We confirm the existence of an imaginary part above the critical temperature $T_C$, which grows as a function of $r$ and underscores the importance of collisions with the gluonic environment for the melting of heavy quarkonia in the Quark-Gluon-Plasma.