https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-015-3424-7
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Quarkonium binding and entropic force
Fakultät für Physik, Universität Bielefeld, 33501, Bielefeld, Germany
* e-mail: satz@physik.uni-bielefeld.de
Received:
2
February
2015
Accepted:
20
April
2015
Published online:
6
May
2015
A 
bound state represents a balance between repulsive kinetic and attractive potential energy. In a hot quark–gluon plasma, the interaction potential experiences medium effects. Color screening modifies the attractive binding force between the quarks, while the increase of entropy with separation gives rise to a growing repulsion. We study the role of these phenomena for in-medium binding and dissociation. It is found that the relevant potential for binding is the free energy 
; with increasing separation, further binding through the internal energy 
is compensated by repulsive entropic effects.
© SIF and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2015
