Fermionic contributions to the three-loop static potential

Abstract

We consider the three-loop corrections to the static potential which are induced by a closed fermion loop. For the reduction of the occurring integrals a combination of the Gröbner and Laporta algorithm has been used and the evaluation of the master integrals has been performed with the help of the Mellin-Barnes technique. The fermionic three-loop corrections amount to 2% of the tree-level result for top quarks, 8% for bottom quarks and 27% for the charm quark system.

Comments: 12 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Phys. Lett. B