YM-Thermodynamics 2024, 41: Pressure, Energy, Density and Entropy Density

For thermodynamical quantities, at the level of 1% accuracy, one-loop representation suffices for an effective theory for the deconfining phase. In the SU(2) case,

The ground-state contributions of P and ρ cancel out in s/T³, the ratio of entropy density s and T³ is not as infrared-sensitive as the other ratios, so the entropy density can be measured within reasonable precision, if long-distance effects are ignored. The SU(3) case,

The pressure close to critical λ is negative in both deconfining and preconfining phase, where the ground state strongly dominates thermodynamics and infrared-sensitive quantities. Finite-size constraints of the lattices heavily effect the pressure below and shortly above transition line. There are small discontinuities in the normalized density. Crossing the boundary generates an extra polarization for each dual gauge mode, compared to those generated on tree-level massless modes. They add extra fluctuating degrees of freedom, increasing the energy density of the preconfining phase, though the order parameter m for the dynamical breaking is continuous. This can be resolved through tunneling between the deconfing trajectory, into the preconfining phase, a phenomenon described by "supercooling". The interaction measure rapidly approaches the free-gas limit, and takes on large values in the preconfining phase. At critical temperature, normalized entropy vanishes, so the gauge modes become infinitely heavy, where the system condenses center-vortex loops. The thermodynamics then are determined completely by the ground state.