If a system is probed or interacts at low energies, resolution is also low, and fine details of what happens at short distances or in high-energy intermediate states are not resolved. Therefore, the short-distance structure can be replaced by something simpler without distorting the low-energy observables. Effective field theory, or EFT, is a systematic approach to carrying out this program. A constructive approach to density functional theory based on these ideas, with application to nuclei, will be outlined.
ANL Physics Division Seminar Schedule