Static potentials for quarkonia at finite temperatures

Abstract

We review non-perturbative static potentials commonly used in potential models for quarkonia at finite T. Potentials derived from Polyakov loop correlators are shown to be inappropriate for this purpose. The q q ¯ free energy is physical but has the wrong spatial decay and perturbative limit. The so-called singlet free energy is gauge dependent and unphysical. An appropriate static real time potential can be defined through a generalisation of pNRQCD to finite T. In perturbation theory, its real part reproduces the Debye-screened potential, its imaginary part accounts for Landau damping. Possibilities for its non-perturbative evaluation are discussed.