Effective model approach to meson screening masses at finite temperature

Temperature dependence of pion and sigma-meson screening masses is evaluated by the Polyakov-loop extended Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (PNJL) model with the entanglement vertex. We propose a practical way of calculating meson screening masses in the NJL-type effective models. The method based on the Pauli-Villars regularization solves the well-known difficulty that the evaluation of screening masses is not easy in the NJL-type effective models. The PNJL model with the entanglement vertex and the Pauli-Villars regularization well reproduces lattice QCD results on temperature dependence of the chiral condensate and the Polyakov loop. The method is applied to analyze temperature dependence of pion screening masses calculated with state-of-the-art lattice simulations with success in reproducing the lattice QCD results.