PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

We report on the first study of the screening properties of the mesonicexcitations with strange ($s$) and charm ($c$) quarks, specifically the groundstates of the pseudo-scalar and vector meson excitations for the $\bar{s}s$,$\bar{s}c$ and $\bar{c}c$ flavor combinations, using the Highly ImprovedStaggered Quark action with dynamical physical strange quark andnearly-physical up and down quarks. By comparing with their respective vacuummeson masses and by investigating the influence of the changing temporalboundary conditions of the valence quarks we study the thermal modifications ofthese mesonic excitations. While the $\bar{s}s$ states show significantmodifications even below the chiral crossover temperature $T_c$, themodifications of the open-charm and charmonium like states become visible onlyfor temperatures $T\gtrsim T_c$ and $T\gtrsim1.2T_c$, respectively.