EQUATION OF STATE FOR THE SU(3) GAUGE-THEORY

By investigating the SU(3) gauge theory thermodynamics on lattices of various sizes we can control finite lattice cutoff effects. We calculate the pressure and energy density on lattices with temporal extent N-tau = 4, 6, and 8 and spatial extent N-sigma = 16 and 32, and extrapolate to the continuum limit. We find a deviation from ideal gas behavior of (15-20)%, even at temperatures as high as T similar to 3T(c). A calculation of the critical temperature for N-tau = 8 and 12 and the string tension for N-tau = 32 is performed to fix the temperature scale, yielding T-c/root sigma = 0.629(3) in the continuum limit.