Static quark potential according to the dual-superconductor picture of QCD

Abstract

We use the effective action describing long-range QCD, which predicts that QCD behaves as a dual superconductor, to derive the interaction energy between two heavy quarks as a function of separation. The dual-superconductor field equations are solved in an approximation in which the boundary between the superconducting vacuum and the region of normal vacuum surrounding the quarks is sharp. Further, non-Abelian effects are neglected. The resulting heavy-quark potential is linear in separation at large separation, and Coulomb-like at small separation. Overall it agrees very well with phenomenologically determined potentials.