  We investigate the interaction between a heavy quark-antiquark pair in color
octet configuration in gluon plasma. We calculate nonperturbatively an
effective thermal potential for such a pair through the study of the
correlation function of a hybrid state with $Q \bar{Q}$ octet and an adjoint
gluon source in the static limit. We discuss the extraction of an octet
potential, and present results for the effective thermal potential between
octet $Q \bar{Q}$ pair in gluon plasma for moderately high temperatures
$\lesssim 2 T_c$. The implications of our result are discussed.
