Quark-antiquark bound state equation in the Wilson loop approach with minimal surfaces

The quark-antiquark gauge invariant Green function is studied through its dependence on Wilson loops. The latter are saturated, in the large Nc limit and for large contours, by minimal surfaces. A covariant bound state equation is derived which in the center-of-mass frame and at equal-times takes the form of a Breit-Salpeter type equation. The large-distance interaction potentials reduce in the static case to a confining linear vector potential. In general, the interaction potentials involve contributions having the structure of flux tube like terms.