Hot gauge field properties from the thermal variational principle

摘要

A Feynman-Jensen version of the thermal variational principle is applied to hot gauge fields, abelian as well as nonabelian: scalar electrodynamics (without scalar self-coupling) and the gluon plasma. The perturbatively known self-energies are shown to derive by variation from a free quadratic (''gaussian'') trial Lagrangian. Independence of the covariant gauge fixing parameter is reached (within the order g(sup 2) studies and for scalar ED) after a reformulation of the partition function such that it depends on only even powers of the gauge field. This way, however, the potential non-perturbative power of the calculus seems to be ruined. (orig.)