CONSISTENT DERIVATION OF THE QUART-ANTIQUARK AND 3-QUARK POTENTIALS IN A WILSON LOOP CONTEXT

We give a new derivation of the quark-antiquark potential in the Wilson loop context. This makes more explicit the approximations involved and enables an immediate extension to the three-quark case. In the q $($) over bar$$ q case we-find the same semirelativistic potential obtained in preceding papers ; but for a question of ordering. In the 3q case we find a spin-dependent potential identical to that already derived in the literature from the ad hoc and incorrect assumption of scalar confinement. we obtain the correct of the spin-independent potential up to the 1/m(2) order.