Light-front effective potential between static sources

As a precursor to an investigation of confinement in light-front QCD, an effective potential between two fixed sources is computed in light-front quantization for a quenched scalar Yukawa theory. The quenching removes pair-production processes that would otherwise result in a spectrum unbounded from below. The sources are fixed with respect to ordinary time, but move in the light-front longitudinal direction. They are dressed by a neutral scalar field represented by a coherent state. This state is obtained nonperturbatively as an eigenstate of the model energy, with the eigenenergy determining the effective potential. The divergent self-energy is regulated by the addition of Pauli-Villars scalars. Although explicit rotational symmetry is broken by the use of light-front coordinates, the effective potential is rotationally symmetric and matches the standard Yukawa potential for scalar exchange. The immediate extension to Yukawa theory with fermionic sources and pair production will be outlined.