  We present a novel approach to the localization-delocalization transition in
the integer quantum Hall effect. The Hamiltonian projected onto the lowest
Landau level can be written in terms of the projected density operators alone.
This and the closed set of commutation relations between the projected
densities leads to simple equations for the time evolution of the density
operators. These equations can be used to map the problem of calculating the
disorder averaged and energetically unconstrained density-density correlation
function to the problem of calculating the one-particle density of states of a
dynamical system with a novel action. At the self-consistent mean-field level,
this approach yields normal diffusion and a finite longitudinal conductivity.
While we have not been able to go beyond the saddle point approximation
analytically, we show numerically that the critical localization exponent can
be extracted from the energetically integrated correlation function yielding
$\nu=2.33 \pm 0.05$ in excellent agreement with previous finite-size scaling
studies.
