  We investigate the vacuum dynamics of U(1), SU(2), and SU(3) lattice gauge
theories in presence of external (chromo)magnetic fields, both in (3+1) and
(2+1) dimensions. We find that the critical coupling for the phase transition
in compact U(1) gauge theory is independent of the strength of an external
magnetic field. On the other hand we find that, both in (3+1) and (2+1)
dimensions, the deconfinement temperature for SU(2) and SU(3) gauge systems in
a constant abelian chromomagnetic field decreases when the strength of the
applied field increases. We conclude that the dependence of the deconfinement
temperature on the strength of an external constant chromomagnetic field is a
peculiar feature of non abelian gauge theories and could be useful to get
insight into color confinement.
