Quarkonia and the pole mass

The pole mass of a heavy quark is ambiguous by an amount of order ΛQCD. We show that the heavy-quark potential, $V(r),$ is similarly ambiguous, but that the total static energy, 2Mₚₒₗₑ+V(r), is unambiguous when expressed in terms of a short-distance mass. This implies that the extraction of a short-distance mass from the quarkonium spectrum is free of an ambiguity of order ΛQCD, in contrast with the pole mass.