  A synthesis of Polyakov loop models of the deconfinement transition and
quasiparticle models of gluon plasma thermodynamics leads to a class of models
in which gluons move in a non-trivial Polyakov loop background. These models
are successful candidates for explaining both critical behavior and the
equation of state for the SU(3) gauge theory at finite temperature. Two
sensitive lattice probes which can discriminate between models are the Polyakov
loop P and e-3p.
