Localization, Coulomb interaction, topological principles and the quantum Hall effect

We report the consequences of a new interaction symmetry that protects the renormalization of the electron gas in low dimensions in general, and in the quantum Hall regime in particular. We introduce a generalized Thouless' criterion for localization to include the effects of the Coulomb interaction and establish the quantization of the Hall conductance as well as the theory of massless edge bosons.