THE TEMPORAL AXIAL GAUGE AT FINITE TEMPERATURE EXPLORED USING THE REAL-TIME FORMALISM

The temporal axial gauge is discussed at zero temperature and extended to finite temperature. A set of Feynman rules is determined within the real-time formalism which allows one to do perturbation theory at finite temperature using the temporal gauge. As a demonstration of the Feynman rules derived we do a simple linear response analysis for the gluon plasma at high temperature. This analysis yields a positive damping constant to one loop order in the long-wavelength limit. The problem of the imaginary-time formalism is discussed. © 1990 Springer-Verlag.