HEAVY-QUARK POTENTIAL AND PHASE-TRANSITIONS IN CONTINUUM THEORY AT FINITE-TEMPERATURE

The heavy quark potential in the continuum theory at finite temperatur e is calculated in different phases by using the Polyakov loop as the order parameter. We find a linearly rising potential in the confinemen t phase, a Debye screened potential in the deconfinement phase and a p erturbative r-2 dependence at very high temperatures. Within the appro ximation used in this paper we report evidence for a first order phase transition accompanied by SU(2) symmetry restoration at very high tem peratures in the static three dimensional theory.