The Z(2) gauge model revisited: as a possible testbed for the   confinement and chiral symmetry phase transition of SU(2) lattice gauge   theory
  Adopting the cooling technique to smooth the discontinuous Z(2) lattice gauge field, we found that on SU(2) gauge configurations obtained by this smoothing there exists clear discontinuity of the topological property at almost the same point as the confinement-deconfinement phase transition of the original Z(2) gauge theory. This observation suggests the possibility that Z(2) gauge model might be a testbed for analyzing the relation between the confinement and the chiral phase transition in which the topological objects are believed to play crucial roles. 
Shinji Hioki