Theoretical investigations of the fractional quantum Hall effect will be undertaken using a unified scheme for understanding the integer and fractional quantum Hall effects and allowing for a straightforward and intuitive understanding of the latter. This scheme provides simple trial wave functions describing the highly correlated incompressible fractional quantum Hall effect. Extensive tests of the validity of these trial wave functions will be conducted and calculations of experimental quantities will be done. For the fractional quantum Hall effect, the nature of the edge states will be studied and the utility of a general Ginzburg- Landau theory will be investigated.
