Quark-Gluon Interactions at High Temperature and Large Distances

Continuum fourdimensional Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) including quarks in the regime of high temperature and large distances (the HT regime) is studied to all perturbative orders. The imaginary time (τ) formalism is used. Then, as shown in previous works, QCD is described by a new generating functional Z_HT, in which quark fields retain their dependences on τ, while gluon and ghost fields are τ-independent. The invariance of Z_HT under BRST transformations in the HT regime is exhibited: it closed quark and electric gluon loops in the HT regime are obtained. The electric mass terms in Z_HT. Infinite sets of non-abelian Ward identities for the closed quark and electric gluon loops in the HT regime are obtained. The electric mass terms in Z_HT are shown to be infrared finite. We prove to all perturbative orders that one can regard as subdominant, and, hence, neglect consistently the contributions of :i) all closed electric gluon loops, ii) all closed quark loops with three or more vertices in diagrams having an even number of electric gluons (or none) in the external lines. In the HT regime, the axial anomalies are obtained: their expressions in terms of τ-independent gluon fields are similar to those for zero temperature. A non-trivial renormalization group (RG) equation in the HT regime, specifically due to the quark-gluon interaction, is presented. A positive beta function is obtained, and it is argued that interactions are not weak in that regime. The RG and the perturbative analysis to all orders appear to indicate that quarks and gluons may be confined in the HT regime (and, in particular in the Early Universe), due to the infrared divergent magnetic gluon sector. Other possibilities are also discussed.