Introduction to Effective Field Theory: Thinking Effectively about Hierarchies of Scale

by C.P. Burgess

Using examples from across the sub-disciplines of physics, this introduction shows why effective field theories are the language in which physical laws are written. The tools of effective field theory are demonstrated using worked examples from areas including particle, nuclear, atomic, condensed matter and gravitational physics. To bring the subject within reach of scientists with a wide variety of backgrounds and interests, there are clear physical explanations, rigorous derivations, and extensive appendices on background material, such as quantum field theory. Starting from undergraduate-level quantum mechanics, the book gets to state-of-the-art calculations using both relativistic and nonrelativistic few-body and many-body examples, and numerous end-of-chapter problems derive classic results not covered in the main text. Graduate students and researchers in particle physics, condensed matter physics, nuclear physics, string theory, and mathematical physics more generally, will find this book ideal for both self-study and for organized courses on effective field theory.

Genres: Physics

660 pages, Hardcover

First published December 10, 2020

Reviews

[Erickson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished Chapter 1-4, 10, and 16 in a qualitative manner (careful reading but not careful enough to go through all the exercises), as I was looking for qualitative understanding of what EFT community does or thinks about.

In all honesty, I think if I had strong -particle physics- QFT background, this reading would have been better, because a lot of intuition about scattering amplitude and some subtle (but probably mechanical to the practitioners), but otherwise this book did a very good job explaining things. I particularly like the fact that there's always a working toy example to illustrate various concepts in relatively transparent manner, such as nonlinear realization of symmetries, spontaneous symmetry breaking, Wilson effective action, etc.

The one thing I would complain about is notation. While I like the fact that the book uses "mostly plus" signature, the choice of symbols and notation is in my opinion sometimes horrible. Even in Chapter 16 the convention for open quantum systems (called there open EFT) is practically different from standard quantum information notation. While notation may be just personal taste, I think at this point it does more damage than anything. It's almost like someone trying to write a textbook on general relativity but refuses to use g_μν as the metric.

It served the purpose of me reading this (as a reading group with a group of colleagues) in order to understand in what sense a field theory is "effective" and why we never really need to care about UV when we are deep in the IR in a more quantitative manner.

[Chiaki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely informative; examples from across theoretical physics