Polyakov Loop in Non-covariant Operator Formalism
  We discuss a Polyakov loop in non-covariant operator formalism which consists of only physical degrees of freedom at finite temperature. It is pointed out that although the Polyakov loop is expressed by a Euclidean time component of gauge fields in a covariant path integral formalism, there is no direct counterpart of the Polyakov loop operator in the operator formalism because the Euclidean time component of gauge fields is not a physical degree of freedom. We show that by starting with an operator which is constructed in terms of only physical operators in the non-covariant operator formalism, the vacuum expectation value of the operator calculated by trace formula can be rewritten into a familiar form of an expectation value of Polyakov loop in a covariant path integral formalism at finite temperature for the cases of axial and Coulomb gauge. 
Makoto Sakamoto and Kazunori Takenaga
hep-th