The static quark potential in three flavor QCD

TL;DR

This paper investigates how dynamical quarks influence the static quark potential at short distances in three-flavor QCD, revealing noticeable effects on the potential's shape through lattice simulations.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of quenched and unquenched lattice calculations, highlighting the impact of sea quarks on the static quark potential shape.

Findings

Sea quarks significantly alter the potential shape.

Dynamical quarks affect short-distance interactions.

Lattice spacings matched within 1% for comparison.

Abstract

We study the effects of dynamical quarks on the static quark potential at distances shorter than those where string breaking is expected. Quenched calculations and calculations with three flavors of dynamical quarks are done on sets of lattices with the lattice spacings matched within about one percent. The effect of the sea quarks on the shape of the potential is clearly visible. We investigate the consequences of these effects in a very crude model, namely solving Schroedinger's equation in the resulting potential.