https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-025-14339-y
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
The determination of potential scales in 2+1 flavor QCD
Department of Physics, University of Wuppertal, Gaußstraße 20, 42119, Wuppertal, Germany
Received:
19
December
2024
Accepted:
21
May
2025
Published online:
19
June
2025
We calculate the hadronic scales 
and their ratio 
on 
flavor QCD ensembles generated by the CLS consortium. These scales are determined from a tree-level improved definition of the static force on the lattice, which we measure using Wilson loops. Our analysis involves various continuum and chiral extrapolations of data that cover pion masses between 134 MeV and 420 MeV and five lattice spacings down to 0.039 fm. We compare the potential scales to gradient flow scales by forming corresponding ratios. We find 
fm at the physical point. As a byproduct of our analysis we express the 
QCD Lambda parameter determined by the ALPHA Collaboration in units of the scale 
and obtain 
Furthermore we present results for the second derivative of the potential to study its shape and compare it to phenomenological potential models.
© The Author(s) 2025
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Funded by SCOAP3.
