Polyakov loop correlators and cyclic Wilson loop from lattice QCD

Abstract

We discuss color screening in 2_s161 flavor QCD in terms of free energies of a static quark-antiquark pair. Thermal modifications of long distance correlations in quark-antiquark systems are studied in terms of static meson correlators. We calculate the Polyakov loop correlator, the color-singlet Wilson line correlator in Coulomb gauge and the cyclic Wilson loop on lattices using the HISQ/Tree action and almost physical quark mases with N_s13_s17964_s19=4,6,8,10,12. We present results in the continuum limit for temperatures up to T_s13_s178818_s19650 MeV and discuss the linear divergence of the cyclic Wilson loop.