We study the quark confinement problem in 2+1 dimensional pure Yang-Mills
theory using euclidean instanton methods. The instantons are regularized and
dressed Wu-Yang monopoles. The dressing of a monopole is due to the mean field
of the rest of the monopoles. We argue that such configurations are stable to
small perturbations unlike the case of singular, undressed monopoles. Using
exact non-perturbative results for the 3-dim. Coulomb gas, where Debye
screening holds for arbitrarily low temperatures, we show in a self-consistent
way that a mass gap is dynamically generated in the gauge theory. The mass gap
also determines the size of the monopoles. In a sense the pure Yang-Mills
theory generates a dynamical Higgs effect. We also identify the disorder
operator of the model in terms of the Sine-Gordon field of the Coulomb gas.Comment: 26 pages, RevTex, Title changed, a new section added, the discussion
on stability of dressed monopole expanded. Version to appear in Physical
Review
