Linear response of hot gluons

We reexamine the various schemes for calculating the linear response (the retarded Green's function) of a hot gluon plasma. The problems related to gauge invariance are discussed in detail, and results in different gauges are compared. We also point out some issues related to the very definition of a thermal ensemble in the presence of unphysical degrees of freedom. By culculating the retarded Green's function directly in real time, we explicitly study the effects of unphysical degrees of freedom in different gauges. Although there appears to be no unique way to define the response function, we find that several schemes can be questioned on formal grounds and that use of the background-field gauge (BFG) is the most satisfactory in this respect. We discuss two proposals to fix the gauge parameter (α) dependence in the BFG response function, the Vilkovisky-DeWitt effective action corresponding to the choice α = 0 (background Landau gauge), and the "gauge-invariant propagator" of Cornwall et al. corresponding to α = 1 (background Feynman gauge).