Analysis of static Wilson line correlators from lattice QCD at finite temperature with T-matrix approach

Abstract

The thermodynamic T-matrix approach is used to study Wilson line correlators (WLCs) for a static quark-antiquark pair in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). Selfconsistent results that incorporate constraints from the QGP equation of state can approximately reproduce WLCs computed in 2+1-flavor lattice-QCD (lQCD), provided the input potential exhibits less screening than in previous studies. Utilizing the updated potential to calculate pertinent heavylight T-matrices we evaluate thermal relaxation rates of heavy quarks in the QGP. We find a more pronounced temperature dependence for low-momentum quarks than in our previous results (with larger screening), which turns into a weaker temperature dependence of the (temperature-scaled) spatial diffusion coefficient, in fair agreement with the most recent lQCD data.