  Maximal Center Gauge (MCG) aims to detect center vortices by maximizing a
gauge functional and then projecting onto the center elements of the respective
group. The requirement for unrestricted maximization of the gauge functional
has proven to be untenable because it was shown that it leads to an
underestimation of the string tension. To counter this problem, the ensemble of
local gauge maxima is investigated and it is found that the unrestricted
maximization can be replaced by a maximization restricted to the Gaussian
distributed part of the ensemble. Such restricted maximization weakens the
problem of an underestimated string tension.
