Effective Field Theory - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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8.EFTx is an online version of MIT's graduate Effective Field Theory course. The course follows the MIT on-campus class 8.851 as it was given by Professor Iain Stewart in the Fall of 2013, and includes his video lectures, resource material on various effective theories, and a series of problems to facilitate learning the material. Anyone can register for the online version of the course, and students at MIT or Harvard can also register for 8.S851 for course credit.

Effective field theory (EFT) provides a fundamental framework to describe physical systems with quantum field theory. In this course you will learn both how to construct EFTs and how to apply them in a variety of situations. We will cover the majority of the common tools that are used by different effective field theories. In particular: identifying degrees of freedom and symmetries, formulating power counting expansions (both dimensional and non-dimensional), field redefinitions, bottom-up and top-down effective theories, fine-tuned effective theories, matching and Wilson coefficients, reparameterization invariance, and various examples of advanced renormalization group techniques. Examples of effective theories we will cover are the Standard Model as an effective field theory, integrating out the massive W, Z, Higgs, and top, chiral perturbation theory, non-relativistic effective field theories including those with a large scattering length, static sources and Heavy Quark Effective Theory (HQET), and a theory for collider physics, the Soft-Collinear Effective Theory (SCET).

• To Identify degrees of freedom and symmetries
• To Formulate power counting expansions (both dimensional and non-dimensional)
• Field redefinitions
• Bottom-up and top-down effective theories
• Fine-tuned effective theories
• Matching and Wilson coefficients
• Reparameterization invariance
• Various examples of advanced renormalization group techniques