This is a 2D-native rendering of the same QCD confinement physics as the 3D flux-tube view — not a flattened camera angle of it. Instead of a 3D tube mesh, the color-field energy is modeled as a genuine 1D energy-density lattice ρ(x) sampled on a 200-cell grid, and the system's state is also plotted on an energy-landscape graph V(r):
V(r) = -(4/3)·(α_s·ħc)/r + σ·r
ħc ≈ 0.1973 GeV·fm
ρ(x) = σ · [x inside the string] + Coulomb bumps at each quark
∫ ρ(x) dx ≡ V(r) (checked live, every frame)
The uniform part of ρ(x) equals the string tension σ everywhere between the quarks — stretch r and that band widens, exactly reproducing the σ·r linear term when integrated. The short-range one-gluon-exchange term is rendered as two narrow Gaussian "binding pockets" centered on each quark, numerically re-normalized every frame so their combined integral always equals -(4/3)(α_s·ħc)/r exactly. The "Lattice-integrated energy" readout performs that integral live with the trapezoid rule and should track V(r) to within grid resolution — a running self-check that the density picture and the closed-form potential agree.
- Separation slider / Pull apart — increases r; the graph marker climbs the V(r) curve and the lattice band widens.
- σ, αs — the two Cornell-potential parameters (lattice QCD / charmonium spectroscopy values ≈ 0.9 GeV/fm and ≈ 0.3–0.4).
- Pair-production threshold — once ΔV since the start exceeds this value, the lattice splits into two independent, shorter density bands ("mesons") that drift apart — hadronization, the mechanism behind particle jets at colliders like the LHC.