  We define smoothed Wilson loop operators on a four dimensional lattice and
check numerically that they have a finite and nontrivial continuum limit. The
continuum operators maintain their character as unitary matrices and undergo a
phase transition at infinite N reflected by the eigenvalue distribution closing
a gap in its spectrum when the defining smooth loop is dilated from a small
size to a large one. If this large N phase transition belongs to a solvable
universality class one might be able to calculate analytically the string
tension in terms of the perturbative Lambda-parameter. This would be achieved
by matching instanton results for small loops to the relevant large-N-universal
function which, in turn, would be matched for large loops to an effective
string theory. Similarities between our findings and known analytical results
in two dimensional space-time indicate that the phase transitions we found only
affect the eigenvalue distribution, but the traces of finite powers of the
Wilson loop operators stay smooth under scaling.
