Energy-momentum tensor correlators and spectral functions (0806.3914v1)

Abstract: We calculate the thermal Euclidean correlators and the spectral functions of the energy-momentum tensor for pure gauge theories, including at non-zero spatial momentum, at leading order in perturbation theory. Our goal is to improve the extraction of transport properties from Euclidean correlators that are computable in lattice QCD. Based on our results and the predictions of hydrodynamics for the structure of the spectral functions at low frequencies, we show that the shear and bulk viscosities can advantageously be extracted from the Euclidean correlators of the conserved charges, energy and momentum, at small but non-vanishing spatial momentum. The spectral functions in these channels are free of the ultraviolet $\omega^4$ term which represents a large background to the thermal physics encoded in the correlators of the fluxes.