A field configuration closer to the true QCD vacuum

An effective action for QCD at one-loop order, which is real, manifestly Lorentz and gauge invariant and which depends on an infinite family of gauge invariants (tr(F _μν F _μν), tr(F _μν F _μν F _?σ F _?σ),...), is obtained. Moreover, anAnsatz for a vacuum configuration is made, whose corresponding vacuum energy density is lower than the one for the SavvidyAnsatz. Both the cases of pure QCD and of QCD with massless fermions are considered.