Remarks on the static dipole-dipole potential at large distances

Abstract

We determine the large-distance behaviour of the static dipole-dipole potential for a wide class of gauge theories on nonperturbative grounds, exploiting only general properties of the theory. In the case of QCD, we recover the known results in the regime of small dipole sizes, and discuss recent nonperturbative calculations. Moreover, we discuss the case of pure-gauge theories, and compare our prediction with the available lattice results.

Revised version; improved discussion of the choice of the Euclidean time direction, of the time-ordering of the Wilson loop, and of the comparison of our results with existing nonperturbative calculations; two references added. To appear in PRD. 30 pages, 2 figures