A NOVEL LOOK AT THE MICHAEL LATTICE SUM-RULES

We reconsider the derivation of the Michael lattice sum rules, which r elate the energy and action stored in a flux tube of a quark-antiquark pair to the static interquark potential and show that they require es sential corrections. We then find, using the coupling constant sum rul e of Karsch, that the total Minkowski field energy does not match the interquark potential, if one follows conventional notions. The implica tions of this result are discussed.