QCD THERMODYNAMICS WITH AN IMPROVED LATTICE ACTION

We have investigated QCD with two flavors of degenerate fermions using the Symanzik-improvement program for both the gauge and fermion actio ns. Our study focuses on the deconfinement transition on an N-t=4 latt ice. Having located the thermal transition, we performed zero temperat ure simulations nearby in order to compute hadronic masses and the sta tic quark potential, We find that this action reduces lattice artifact s present in thermodynamics with the standard Wilson (gauge and fermio n) actions. However, comparisons between improved Wilson and Kogut-Sus skind actions show some disagreement.