Textbook in PDF format

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.
Theoretical Framework
Decoupling and Hierarchies of Scale
Effective Actions
Power Counting and Matching
Symmetries
Boundaries
Time-Dependent Systems
Relativistic Applications
Conceptual Issues (Relativistic Systems)
QCD and Chiral Perturbation Theory
The Standard Model as an Effective Theory
General Relativity as an Effective Theory
Nonrelativistic Applications
Conceptual Issues (Nonrelativistic Systems)
Electrodynamics of Nonrelativistic Particles
First-Quantized Methods
Many-Body Applications
Goldstone Bosons Again
Degenerate Systems
EFTs and Open Systems
Appendixes
Conventions and Units
Momentum Eigenstates and Scattering
Quantum Field Theory: A Cartoon
Further Reading