Magnetic screening in hot non-Abelian gauge theory

We analyze the large distance and low-momentum behavior of the magnetic glu on propagator of the SU(2) gauge theory at finite temperature. Lattice calc ulations within the 4-dimensional as well as the effective, dimensionally r educed 3-dimensional gauge theories in generalized Landau gauges and MAG sh ow that the magnetic propagator is strongly infrared suppressed in Landau g auges but stays large and finite in MAG. Despite these differences in the l ow-momentum behavior of the propagator ii: calculated in different gauges t he magnetic fields are exponentially screened in all gauges considered. Fro m the propagator calculated in maximally Abelian gauge we find for the scre ening mass, m(M) = (1.48 +/- 0.17)T at T = 2T(c). (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.