  The infra-red properties of three-dimensional abelian lattice gauge theory
are known to be governed by a neutral plasma of magnetic monopole excitations.
We address the fate of these monopoles in the presence of light dynamical
fermions, using a lattice formulation of compact QED_3 with N_f=4 fermion
flavors supplemented by a four-fermi contact term permitting numerical Monte
Carlo simulations in the chiral limit. Our data hint at a restoration of chiral
symmetry above a critical value of the (inverse) coupling beta. By performing
simulations in a sector of non-vanishing magnetic charge, we are able to study
the response of the theory to an external magnetic test charge. Our results
suggest that the monopole plasma persists even once chiral symmetry is
restored, and hence survives the continuum limit.
