A novel look at the Michael lattice sum rules

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