Screening masses of hot SU(2) gauge theory from the 3d adjoint Higgs model

We study the Landau gauge propagators of the lattice SU(2) 3d adjoint Higgs model, considered as an effective theory of high temperature 4d SU(2) gaug e theory. From the long distance behaviour of the propagators we extract th e screening masses. The propagators are studied both in the symmetric and t he broken phases of the 3d Higgs model. It is shown that the pole masses ex tracted from the propagators in the symmetric phase agree well with the scr eening masses obtained recently in finite temperature SU(2) theory, while p ropagators measured in the broken phase show quite a different behaviour. T his suggest that the symmetric phase of the 3d model corresponds to the dec onfined phase of the 4d SU(2) gauge theory. The relation of the propagator masses to the masses extracted from gauge invariant correlators and the mas s gap of pure 3d SU(2) gauge theory is also discussed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Sc ience B.V. All rights reserved.