TOPOLOGICAL-STRUCTURE IN THE SU(2) VACUUM

We study the topological content of the vacuum of SU(2) pure gauge the ory using lattice simulations. We use a smoothing process based on the renormalization group equation. This removes short distance fluctuati ons but preserves long distance structure. The action of the smoothed configurations is dominated by instantons, but they still show an area law for Wilson loops with an unchanged string tension. The average ra dius of an instanton is about 0.2 fm, at a density of about 2 fm(-4).