The Thermal Beta-Function in Yang-Mills Theory

Previous calculations of the thermal beta-function in a hot Yang--Mills gas at the one--loop level have exposed problems with the gauge dependence and with the sign, which is opposite to what one would expect for asymptotic freedom. We show that inclusion of higher--loop effects through a static Braaten--Pisarski resummation is necessary to consistently obtain the leading term, but alters the results only quantitatively. The sign, in particular, remains the same. We also explore, by a crude parameterization, the effects a (non--perturbative) magnetic mass may have on these results.