  We present results for screening masses of mesons built from light and
strange quarks in the temperature range of approximately between 140 MeV to 800
MeV. The lattice computations were performed with 2+1 dynamical light and
strange flavors of improved (p4) staggered fermions along a line of constant
physics defined by a pion mass of about 220 MeV and a kaon mass of 500 MeV. The
lattices had temporal extents Nt = 4, 6 and 8 and aspect ratios of Ns / Nt \geq
4. At least up to a temperature of 140 MeV the pseudo-scalar screening mass
remains almost equal to the corresponding zero temperature pseudo-scalar (pole)
mass. At temperatures around 3Tc (Tc being the transition temperature) the
continuum extrapolated pseudo-scalar screening mass approaches very close to
the free continuum result of 2 \pi T from below. On the other hand, at high
temperatures the vector screening mass turns out to be larger than the free
continuum value of 2 \pi T. The pseudo-scalar and the vector screening masses
do not become degenerate even for a temperature as high as 4Tc. Using these
mesonic spatial correlation functions we have also investigated the restoration
of chiral symmetry and the effective restoration of the axial symmetry. We have
found that the vector and the axial-vector screening correlators become
degenerate, indicating chiral symmetry restoration, at a temperature which is
consistent with the QCD transition temperature obtained in previous studies. On
the other hand, the pseudo-scalar and the scalar screening correlators become
degenerate only at temperatures larger than 1.3Tc, indicating that the
effective restoration of the axial symmetry takes place at a temperature larger
than the QCD transition temperature.
