Vacuum fields in the Schwinger model

We suggest a simple model of a "vortex-antivortex liquid" for the characteristic Euclidean gauge-field configuration giving the main contribution to the path integral in the two-dimensional Schwinger model. The spectrum of the Dirac operator in this model has a nonzero volume density of eigenvalues $\rho \left(\lambda \right)$ at $\lambda =0\mathrm{}$ which gives rise to a nonzero fermion condensate ${〈\overline{\psi }\psi 〉}_0$. The model reproduces also the correct qualitative behavior for the field-strength correlator $〈E\left(x\right)E\left(y\right)\mathrm{}〉$ and for the Wilson loop. The implications for QCD are discussed.