Effective Field Theory in Nuclear Physics

Recent progress in using effective field theory to describe two nucleon systems is reviewed.

We discuss the role effective field theory plays in making predictions in nuclear physics in an approach that combines both the high sophistication of the standard nuclear many-body approach and the power of systematic higher chiral-order account in chiral perturbation theory. The main idea of this approach is illustrated with a selected number of cases involving few-body systems, the measurement of some of which poses an experimental challenge and will be of value to solar n...

Steven Weinberg's seminal papers from 1990-92 initiated the use of effective field theories (EFTs) for nuclei. We summarize progress, priorities, and open questions for nuclear EFT developments based on the 2019 INT program "Nuclear Structure at the Crossroads."

The application of the effective field theory (EFT) method to nuclear systems is reviewed. The roles of degrees of freedom, QCD symmetries, power counting, renormalization, and potentials are discussed. EFTs are constructed for various energy regimes of relevance in nuclear physics, and are used in systematic expansions to derive nuclear forces in terms of a number of parameters that embody information about QCD dynamics. Two-, three-, and many-nucleon systems, including exte...

Effetive field theory is believed to provide a useful framework for describing low-energy nuclear phenomena in a model-independent fashion. I give here a brief account of the basic features of this approach, some of its latest developments, and examples of actual calculations carried out in this framework.

Various perturbative and non-perturbative many-body techniques are discussed in this work. Especially, we will focus on the summation of so-called Parquet diagrams with emphasis on applications to finite nuclei. Here, the subset of two-body Parquet equations will be discussed. A practical implementation of the corresponding equations for studies of effective interactions for finite nuclei is outlined.

Over the past five years there have been profound advances in nuclear physics based on effective field theory and the renormalization group. In this brief, we summarize these advances and discuss how they impact our understanding of nuclear systems and experiments that seek to unravel their unknowns. We discuss future opportunities and focus on modern topics in low-energy nuclear physics, with special attention to the strong connections to many-body atomic and condensed matte...

Low-energy nuclear weak-interaction processes play important roles in many astrophysical contexts, and effective field theory is believed to be a highly useful framework for describing these processes in a model-independent manner. I present a brief account of the basic features of the nuclear effective theory approach, and some examples of actual calculations carried out in this method.

An accurate description of nuclear matter starting from free-space nuclear forces has been an elusive goal. The complexity of the system makes approximations inevitable, so the challenge is to find a consistent truncation scheme with controlled errors. Nonperturbative effective field theories could be well suited for the task. Perturbative matching in a model calculation is used to explore some of the issues encountered in extending effective field theory techniques to many-b...

This review aims at a critical discussion of the interplay between effective interactions derived from various many-body approaches and spectroscopic data extracted from large scale shell-model studies. To achieve this, our many-body scheme starts with the free nucleon-nucleon (NN) interaction, typically modelled on various meson exchanges. The NN interaction is in turn renormalized in order to derive an effective medium dependent interaction. The latter is in turn used in sh...