8.851 | Spring 2013 | Graduate

Effective Field Theory

Readings

Text and References

There is no required textbook. Some of the reading will be taken from the following texts. If you want to buy a book, I suggest Heavy Quark Physics, but note that it will only be useful for < 20% of the material.

  • Manohar, Aneesh Vasant, and Mark B. Wise. Heavy Quark Physics. Cambridge University Press, 2007. ISBN: 9780521037570. [Preview with Google Books]
  • Donoghue, John F., Eugene Golowich, et al. Dynamics of the Standard Model. Cambridge University Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780521362887.
  • Collins, John C. Renormalization. Cambridge University Press, 1984. ISBN: 9780521242615.
  • Georgi, Howard. Weak Interactions and Modern Particle Theory. Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, 1984. ISBN: 9780805331639. Also available online.
  • Ellis, R. K., W. J. Stirling, et al. QCD and Collider Physics. Cambridge University Press, 1996. ISBN: 9780521581899.

The reading assignments below are for Part I of the course. See the lecture notes section for notes for Part II.

LEC # READING ASSIGNMENTS
1

Weinberg, Steven. Chapter 18 in The Quantum Theory of Fields. Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780521670548.

Peskin, Michael E., and Daniel V. Schroeder. Chapter 12 in An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory. Westview Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780201503975.

2

For those needing a review of the SM look at:
Manohar, Aneesh Vasant, and Mark B. Wise. Chapter 1 in Heavy Quark Physics. Cambridge University Press, 2007. ISBN: 9780521037570.

For dim-6 standard model operators look at:
Buchmuller, W., and D. Wyler. “dim-6 Operators.” Nuclear Physics B 268, no. 3–4 (1986): 621–53.

Some of their operators are actually redundant by the equations of motion, see:
Grzadkowski, B., M. Iskrzyński, et al. “Dimension-six terms in the Standard Model Lagrangian.” Journal of High Energy Physics 85 (2010).

For equations of motion, see the paper by C. Arzt discussed in class:
Arzt, C. “Reduced Effective Lagrangians.” Physics Letters B 342, no. 1–4 (1995): 189–95.

3

For the Dimensional Regularization read:
Collins, John C. Chapter 4 in Renormalization: An Introduction to Renormalization, the Renormalization Group, and the Operator-Product Expansion (Cambridge Monographs on Mathematical Physics). Cambridge University Press, 1984. ISBN: 9780521242615.

For the Decoupling Theorem, look at the review article:
Manohar, Aneesh V. “Effective Field Theories.” 1996.

4–5

Look at the review article:
Buras, Andrzej J. “Weak Hamiltonian, CP Violation and Rare Decays.” 1998.
It’s long, so focus on pp. 41–50 for a review of renormalization group techniques in QCD, and pp. 50–69 on the OPE. Note that his O1 and O2 are my O2 and O1 respectively.


For a discussion of the renormalization group at NLO/NLL see pp. 69–71 of the above article. Then look at pp. 82–6 for a discussion of scheme dependence and scheme independence.

6–7

Read the following to complement our Chiral Perturbation theory discussion this week:
Georgi, Howard. Section 2.6, and Chapter 5 in Weak Interactions and Modern Particle Theory. Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, 1984. ISBN: 9780805331639.

Donoghue, John F., Eugene Golowich, and Barry R. Holstein. Dynamics of the Standard Model. Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp. 97–115. ISBN: 9780521362887 is also good reading.


Note that the equations of motion for Sigma in Chiral Perturbation theory are derived on pp. 104–5 of the review:
Scherer, S. “Introduction to Chiral Perturbation Theory.” Advanced Nuclear Physics 27 (2003): 277.


A discussion of CCWZ can be found on pp. 19–24 of the review:
Manohar, Aneesh V. “Effective Field Theories.” 1996.

8–10

Readings from Manohar, Aneesh Vasant, and Mark B. Wise. Heavy Quark Physics. Cambridge University Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780521037570.

  • pp. 45–9, and 54–76 on HQET, Covariant Rep. of Fields
  • pp. 77–95 on Renormalization and Matching
  • pp. 102–7, and 115–23 on power corrections and renormalons in HQET

Extra (optional) OPE Readings from Heavy Quark Physics :


  • pp. 151–68, and 173–5 discuss the OPE for B->Xc e nu in a lot of detail
  • Note that pp. 32–42 discuss the OPE for Deep Inelastic Scattering (which is actually a harder example than for B->Xc e nu)
11–12

Read the introduction, pp. 1–21 of:
Beneke, M. “Renormalons”. Physics Reports 317, no. 1 (1999): 1–142.

Two short papers, one on the R-RGE and MSR mass:

  1. Hoang, Andre H., Ambar Jain, et al. “Infrared Renormalization-Group Flow for Heavy-Quark Masses”. Physical Review Letters 101, no. 15 (2008): 151602–2.4 and one on using R-scheme for operator product expansions as a way of perturbing from MSbar towards a Wilsonian OPE.
  2. ———. “R Evolution: Improving Perturbative QCD”. Physical Review D Particles Fields 82, no. 1 (2010): 011501–1.5.
13–14

For information on fine-tuning, see:
Kaplan, David B., Martin J. Savage, et al. . “A New Expansion for Nucleon-Nucleon Interactions”. Physics Letters B 424, no. 3–4 (1998): 390–6.

Thesis, Stewart, Iain W. Applications of Chiral Perturbation Theory in Reactions with Heavy Particles. Pasadena, California Institute of Technology, 1999, pp. 16–26, introduction to the EFT, the fixed points and beta function; (extra, non-assigned reading for Chapter 5 on why its one-loop exact for a certain class of operators and details on renormalization schemes).


For information on conformal invariance see:
Mehen, T., I. W. Stewart, et al. “Conformal Invariance for Non-Relativistic Field Theory”. Physics Letters B 474, no. 1 (2000): 145–52.

For information on the su(4) Wigner symmetry, see:
———. “Wigner Symmetry in the Limit of Large Scattering Lengths”. Physical Review Letters 83, no. 5 (1999): 931–34.

For information on the deuteron form factors see:
Kaplan, David B., Martin J. Savage, et al. A Perturbative Calculation of the Electromagnetic Form Factors of the Deuteron. Physical Review C 59, no. 2 (1999): 617–29.

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