From continuum studies it is known that the Coulomb string tension $sigma_C$ gives an upper bound for the physical (Wilson) string tension $sigma_W$ [D. Zwanziger, Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 102001 (2003)]. How does however such relationship translate to the lattice? In this paper we give evidence that there, while the two string tensions are related at zero temperature, they decouple at finite temperature. More precisely, we show that on the lattice the Coulomb gauge confinement scenario is always tied to the spatial string tension, which is known to survive the deconfinement phase transition and to cause screening effects in the quark-gluon plasma. Our analysis is based on the identification and elimination of center vortices which allows to control the physical string tension and study its effect on the Coulomb gauge observables. We also show how alternative definitions of the Coulomb potential may sense the deconfinement transition; however a true static Coulomb gauge order parameter for the phase transition is still elusive on the lattice.
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