Purely Gluonic Soliton Solutions in the Leading - Model

After a brief introduction to QCD and the concept of solitons, two quark confinement models are introduced. Finite energy, purely gluonic soliton solutions, the main topic in this thesis, are then considered in a two-dimensional space on the basis of one of the models--the leading-logarithm model, which is equivalent to electromagnetism with a dielectric constant, varepsilon, logarithmically proportional to the fields. Solutions, in the absence of sources, are possible provided varepsilon > 0 and varepsilon < 0 are both present in the same space. Finally, some experimental glueball candidates are introduced and some brief comments are made.