Static quark-antiquark free energy and the running coupling at finite temperature

We analyze the free energy of a static quark-antiquark pair in quenched QCD at short and large distances. From this we deduce running couplings, g(2) (r, T), and determine the length scale that separates at high temperature the short distance perturbative regime from the large distance nonperturbative regime in the QCD plasma phase. Ambiguities in the definition of a coupling beyond the perturbative regime are discussed in their relation to phenomenological considerations on heavy quark bound states in the quark gluon plasma. Our analysis suggests that it is more appropriate to characterize the nonperturbative properties of the QCD plasma phase close to T-c in terms remnants of the confinement part of the QCD force rather than a strong Coulombic force.