Abstract
A new basis has been found for the theory of localization of electrons in disordered systems. The method is based on a selfconsistent solution of the equation for the self energy in second order perturbation theory, whose solution may be purely real almost everywhere (localized states) or complex everywhere (nonlocalized states). The equations used are exact for a Bethe lattice. The selfconsistency condition gives a nonlinear integral equation in two variables for the probability distribution of the real and imaginary parts of the self energy. A simple approximation for the stability limit of localized states gives Anderson's 'upper limit approximation'. Exact solution of the stability problem in a special case gives results very close to Anderson's best estimate.