Testing perturbation theory on the Nf=0 static quark potential

Abstract The perturbative expansion of static force and potential is reanalyzed concerning its practical applicability. A well behaved perturbative prediction is given by the integration of the renormalization group equation for the coupling α qq ( μ =1/ r )=( C f ) −1 r 2 F ( r ). Since the Lambda-parameter of the N f =0 theory is known from [ALPHA Collaboration, S. Capitani, M. Luscher, R. Sommer, H. Wittig, Nucl. Phys. B 544 (1999) 669], the perturbative prediction contains no free parameter. It is confronted with recent non-perturbative results. For α ≲0.3 where the truncation error of the perturbative expression is naively estimated to be moderate, it is really quite accurate and large “non-perturbative terms” are excluded.