QCD potential at O(1/m) - art. no. 014023

Within an effective field theory framework, we obtain an expression for the next-to-leading term in the 1/m expansion of the singlet cre QCD potential in terms of Wilson loops, which holds beyond perturbation theory. The ambi guities in the definition of the QCD potential beyond leading order in 1/m are discussed and a specific expression for the 1/m potential is given. We explicitly evaluate this expression at one loop and compare the outcome wit h the existing perturbative results. On general grounds we show that for qu enched QED and fully Abelian-like models this expression exactly vanishes.