Strong correlations in hot QCD

After reviewing briefly the basic strategy of analyzing the RHIC data, recent lattice results of the non-pertubative/strong-coupling aspects of quark-gluon plasma probed primarily by the heavy quarks are presented. In particular, free energies of static quarks in various color channels, the Debye screening mass and the spatial string tension above the pseudo-critical temperature are discussed on the basis of the full QCD simulations with staggered quarks and with Wilson quarks. Current status of the equal-time Bethe-Salpeter wave functions and the spectral functions of the charmoniums in quenched QCD simulations is also summarized. It is argued that the hot plasma above the (pseudo-)critical temperature Tc is still strongly interacting up to T ∼ (1.5− 2)Tc so that hadronic bound states or resonances made of strange, charm and bottom quarks in certain channels may survive inside the plasma. An attempt to extract the spectral functions at finite T in full QCD simulations is also mentioned.