The statistics of energy levels for a disordered conductor are conside
red in the critical energy window near the mobility edge. It is shown
that, if the critical wave functions are multifractal, the one-dimensi
onal gas of levels on the energy axis is compressible, in the sense th
at the variance of the level number in an interval is [(delta N)(2)]si
milar to chi[N] for [N] much greater than 1. The compressibility, chi=
eta/2d, is given exactly in terms of the multifractal exponent eta=d-D
-2 at the mobility edge in d-dimensional system. (C) 1996 American Ins
titute of Physics.