  In the usual real-time finite-temperature gauge theory both the physical and
the unphysical degrees of freedom are thermalised. We discuss the alternative
approach where only the physical transverse components of the gauge field have
bare thermal propagators, whereas the unphysical degrees of freedom are not
heated. We show how pinch singularities are avoided: sometimes this requires
resummation. If only the hard thermal loop is included in the resummation, the
spatially-longitudinal component of the gauge field, which contains an extra
collective plasmon mode, becomes fully thermalised, though the Faddeev-Popov
ghost and the remaining unphysical component of the gauge field remain frozen.
