Meron pairs and fermion zero modes

Merons, conjectured as a semiclassical mechanism for color confinement in Q CD, have been described analytically by either infinite action configuratio ns or an Ansatz with discontinuous action. We construct a smooth, finite ac tion, stationary lattice solution corresponding to a meron pair. We also de rive an analytical solution for the zero mode of the meron pair Ansatz, sho w that it has the qualitative behavior of the exact zero mode of the lattic e solution, and propose the use of zero modes to identify meron gauge field configurations in stochastic evaluations of the lattice QCD path integral.