QCD Monopoles on the Lattice and Gauge Invariance

The long standing problem is solved why the number and the location of monopoles observed in Lattice configurations depend on the choice of the gauge used to detect them, in contrast to the obvious requirement that monopoles, as physical objects, must have a gauge-invariant status. It is proved, by use of non-abelian Bianchi identities, that monopoles are indeed gauge-invariant: the technique used to detect them has instead an efficiency which depends on the choice of the abelian projection, in a known and controllable way.