We confront the thermal NLO vector spectral function (both the transverse and longitudinal channel with respect to spatial momentum, both above and below the light cone) with continuum-extrapolated lattice data (both quenched and with $N_{rm f} = 2$, at $T sim 1.2 T_{rm c}$). The perturbative side incorporates new results, whose main features are summarized. The resolution of the lattice data is good enough to constrain the scale choice of $alpha_{rm s}$ on the perturbative side. The comparison supports the previous indication that the true spectral function falls below the resummed NLO one in a substantial frequency domain. Our results may help to scrutinize direct spectral reconstruction attempts from lattice QCD.
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