Vertex Operators in the Quantum Hall Effect

The edge states of the quantum Hall effect carry representations of chiral current algebras and their associated groups. In the simplest case of a single filled Landau level, I demonstrate explicitly how the group action affects the many-body states, and why the Kac-Peterson cocycle appears in the group multiplication law. I show how these representations may be used to construct vertex operators which create localised edge excitations, and indicate how they are related to the bulk quasi-particles.