MASS-SPECTRUM OF THE TEMPERATURE-DEPENDENT BETHE-SALPETER-EQUATION FOR COMPOSITES OF QUARKS WITH A COULOMB PLUS A LINEAR KERNEL

We assume that high-energy nucleus-nucleus interactions give rise to a hot and,dense plasma comprising quarks and gluons due to successive n ucleon-nucleon collisions. We treat this plasma as an ideal fluid at t emperature T prior to its eventual particlization, and attempt a micro scopic description of meson-formation by using finite temperature prop agators for q and (q) over bar in a Bethe-Salpeter equation with a Cou lomb plus a linear kernel. The equation thus obtained is reduced to a Schrodinger-like equation which then yields, for 0 < T < 86 MeV, the b ound state masses for different states of b (b) over bar and c (c) ove r bar, which are in agreement with the experimental values for these s tates. The effects of the temperature of the plasma on the meson masse s show up only when the temperature exceeds 86 MeV, pointing to the pr obable reason for the successes of the earlier models which did not ex plicitly take the temperature of the plasma into account.