Comparing the QCD potential in perturbative QCD and lattice QCD at large distances

Abstract

We compare the perturbatively calculated QCD potential to that obtained from lattice calculations in the theory without light quark flavours. We examine E_tot(r) = 2 m_pole + V_QCD(r) by re-expressing it in the MSbar mass m = m^MSbar(m^MSbar) and by choosing specific prescriptions for fixing the scale mu (dependent on r and m). By adjusting m so as to maximise the range of convergence, we show that perturbative and lattice calculations agree up to 3*r_0 ~ 7.5 GeV^-1 (r_0 is the Sommer scale) within the uncertainty of order Lambda^3 r^2.