Stability of Quantum Electrodynamics and Quantum Chromodynamics

We consider the vacuum energy in QED viewed as in a system of charged fermions and bosons and in QCD viewed as in a system of quarks (fermions) and gluons (bosons) in a self-dual field with a constant strength. We show that the cause of instability is the instability of bosons in the self-dual vacuum field. For the global stability of a system consisting of fermions and bosons, the number of fermions should be sufficiently large. The nonzero self-dual field leading to the confinement of fermions realizes the minimum of the vacuum energy in the case where the boson has the smallest mass in the system. Confinement therefore does not arise in QED, where the fermion (electron) has the smallest mass, and does arise in QCD, where the boson (gluon) has the smallest mass.