Heavy-quarkonium interaction in QCD at finite temperature

We explore the temperature dependence of the heavy-quarkonium interaction based on the Bhanot-Peskin leading order perturbative QCD analysis. The Wilson coefficients are computed solving the Schrodinger equation in a screened Coulomb heavy-quark potential. The inverse Mellin transform of the Wilson coefficients then allows for the computation of the 1S and 2S heavy-quarkonium gluon and pion total cross section at finite screening/temperature. As a phenomenological illustration, the temperature dependence of the 1S charmonium thermal width is determined and compared to recent lattice QCD results. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.