Dimensional reduction and confinement from five dimensions

We study non-perturbatively five-dimensional SU(2) gauge theories by means of the mean-field expansion on the lattice. On the anisotropic torus we show that a continuum limit can be defined where the anisotropy is a relevant parameter. The analysis of the static force supports the fact that the four-dimensional hyperplanes decouple from each other in the continuum limit. Clear signs of confinement are found in the static potential along the hyperplanes. We present first results from Monte Carlo simulations on the phase diagram.