Quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the relativistic quantum theory
that describes the interactions of quarks and gluons to make up
hadrons, is a pillar of the standard model of particle physics.
Yet it remains a work in progress. This is because, while QCD
has obvious similarities to the much simpler quantum theory of
electrodynamics that involves electrons interacting through
exchanges of photons, gluons carry a color quantum number
leading to a marked increase in complexity in the number of
fundamental interactions. The static potential between two heavy
quarks is a fundamental quantity in QCD that enters the
description of several measurable quantities such as threshold
production of quark pairs and quark bound states. Though it is
possible to compute this potential using perturbation theory,
the complicated interactions amongst quarks and gluons pose a
challenge. It took more than twenty years to reliably compute
the second-order corrections to the potential after the first-
order corrections were first compute