Vacuum Polarization at Long Distances and the Heavy-Quark-Antiquark Potential

Abstract

Vacuum polarization at long distances for confined heavy-quark-antiquark ($Q\overline{Q}$) pairs is considered. The vacuum-polarization-corrected static potential is shown to have a radial dependence which should allow interpolation between charmonium, upsilon states, and other heavy $Q\overline{Q}$ systems. It is argued that the static, confining potential cannot grow faster than a linear potential at large distances, within the framework of this analysis.