Poincare invariance and the heavy-quark potential - art. no. 076010

We derive and discuss the constraints induced by Poincare invariance on the form of the heavy-quark potential up to order 1/m(2). We present two deriv ations: one uses general arguments directly based on the Poincare algebra a nd the other follows from an explicit calculation on the expression of the potential in terms of Wilson loops. We confirm relations from the literatur e, but also clarify the origin of a long-standing false statement pointed o ut recently.