The anti-quark--quark potential from Bethe-Salpeter amplitudes on lattice

Potentials of quark–anti-quark pairs are studied from the anti-q–q Nambu-Bethe-Salpeter (NBS) wave functions in quenched lattice QCD. With the use of a method which has been recently developed in the derivation of nuclear forces from QCD, we derive the anti-q–q potentials with finite quark masses from the NBS wave functions. We calculate the anti-q–q NBS wave functions in pseudo-scalar and vector channels for several quark masses. The derived potentials in both channels reveal linear confinement plus Coulomb potentials. We also discuss the quark-mass and channel dependence of the anti-q–q potentials.