Effective model for hot gluodynamics

We consider an effective Lagrangian containing contributions from glueball and gluon degrees of freedom with a scale-invariant coupling between the two. The thermodynamic potential is calculated taking into account thermal fluctuations of both fields. The glueball mean field dominates at low temperature, while the high temperature phase is governed by low-mass gluonlike excitations. The model shows some similarities to the lattice results in the pure glue sector of QCD. In particular, it exhibits a strong first order phase transition at a critical temperature of approximately 265 MeV when reasonable parameters are taken. (c) 2000 The American Physical Society.