Towards the Finite Temperature Gluon Propagator in Landau Gauge Yang-Mills Theory

Yang-Mills theories undergo a deconfining phase transition at a critical temperature. In lattice calculations the temporal Wilson loop and Z_3 order parameter show above this temperature a behavior typical of deconfinement. A quantity of interest in the study of this transition is the gluon propagator and its evolution with temperature. This contribution describes the current status of an investigation of the finite temperature gluon propagator in Landau gauge. It analyzes the high temperature case. The resulting equations are compared to the corresponding ones of three-dimensional Yang-Mills theory. Under certain assumptions it is found that a kind of spatial "confinement" is still present, even at very high temperatures.