Effective Field Theories of QCD for Heavy Quarkonia at Finite Temperature

Abstract

Quarkonia represent one of the most important probes in the experimental investigation, through heavy-ion collisions, of the quark-gluon plasma. Such bound states were hypothesized to dissociate in this plasma due to the screening of the colour charges and experimental data (SPS, RHIC and LHC) indeed show a suppression pattern. In this thesis we extend the well-established and successful zero temperature framework of Non-Relativistic (NR) Effective Field Theories (EFTs) (NRQCD, pNRQCD) for the study of heavy quarkonia (production, spectroscopy, decays, ...) to finite temperatures. This is achieved by integrating out in sequence the scales that characterize a NR bound state and those that are typical of a thermal medium, in the possible hierarchies that are relevant for quarkonia in the quark-gluon plasma.