A Field Theory for the Read Operator

We introduce a new field theory for studying quantum Hall systems. The quantum field is a modified version of the bosonic operator introduced by Read. In contrast to Read's original work we do {\em not} work in the lowest Landau level alone, and this leads to a much simpler formalism. We identify an appropriate canonical conjugate field, and write a Hamiltonian that governs the exact dynamics of our bosonic field operators. We describe a Lagrangian formalism, derive the equations of motion for the fields and present a family of mean-field solutions. Finally, we show that these mean field solutions are precisely the Laughlin states. We do not, in this work, address the treatment of fluctuations.