The quark propagator at finite temperature is investigated using quenched gauge configurations. The propagator form factors are investigated for temperatures above and below the gluon deconfinement temperature $T_c$ and for the various Matsubara frequencies. Significant differences between the functional behaviour below and above $T_c$ are observed both for the quark wave function and the running quark mass. The results for the running quark mass indicate a strong link between gluon dynamics, the mechanism for chiral symmetry breaking and the deconfinement mechanism. For temperatures above $T_c$ and for low momenta, our results support also a description of quarks as free quasi-particles.
Download