  We investigate low-lying fermion modes in SU(2) gauge theory at temperatures
above the phase transition. Both staggered and overlap spectra reveal
transitions from chaotic (random matrix) to integrable (Poissonian) behavior
accompanied by an increasing localization of the eigenmodes. We show that the
latter are trapped by local Polyakov loop fluctuations. Islands of such "wrong"
Polyakov loops can therefore be viewed as defects leading to Anderson
localization in gauge theories. We find strong similarities in the spatial
profile of these localized staggered and overlap eigenmodes. We discuss
possible interpretations of this finding and present a sparse random matrix
model that reproduces these features.
