Comments on a Minimal Quasiparticle Approach for the QGP and Its Large-N c Limits

Abstract

A minimal quasiparticle approach for describing QGP at temperatures much higher than the critical one is discussed. It involves an ideal-gas framework in which quark and gluon masses depend on temperature. This model is able to reproduce the recent equations of state computed in lattice QCD for temperatures typically higher than 2 T c , in a range in which it is reasonable to neglect interactions between quasiparticles. In addition, the equations of state for a generic gauge theory with gauge groups SU(N c ) and quarks in an arbitrary representation are studied. The gauge independence in the pure glue sector and the large-N c equivalence between the gauge groups SU(N c ) and SO(2N c ) in a full plasma is finally shown for normalized thermodynamic quantities.