Abstract: (IOP)
Recent results of a next-to-next-to-leading order hard-thermal-loop perturbation theory (HTLpt) calculation of the QCD thermodynamics are revisited. The focus is on the trace anomaly scaled by T(2) for pure-glue and N(f) = 3 QCD. The comparison to available lattice data suggests that for pure-glue QCD agreement between HTLpt and lattice data for the trace anomaly begins at temperatures above 8 T(c) while when including quarks (N(f) = 3) agreement begins already at temperatures above 2 T(c). The res ults in both cases indicate that at very high temperatures the T(2)-scaled trace anomaly increases with temperature in accordance with the predictions of HTLpt.
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