Are there short distance non-perturbative contributions to the QCD static potential?

We find that perturbation theory fails to describe the short range static potential as obtained from quenched lattice simulations, at least for source separations r>(6 GeV)−1. The difference between the non-perturbatively determined potential and perturbation theory at short distance is well parameterised by a linear term with a slope of approximately 1.2 GeV2, that is significantly bigger than the string tension, σ≈0.21 GeV2.