Static hybrid potential in D dimensions at short distances

We compute the energy of a static hybrid, i.e., of a hybrid quarkonium with static quark and antiquark, at short distances in D=4,3, dimensions. The soft contribution to this energy is the static potential of a color-octet quark-antiquark pair at short distances, which is known at two loops for arbitrary D. We have checked this expression employing thermal field theory methods. Using the effective field theory potential nonrelativistic QCD we calculate the ultrasoft contributions to the hybrid (and singlet) static energy at the two-loop level. We then present new results for the static hybrid energy/potential and the hybrid decay width in three and four dimensions. Finally we comment on the meaning of the perturbative results in two space-time dimensions, where the hybrid does not exist. © 2011 American Physical Society.