Effective Field Theories: A new book by Drs. Petrov and Blechman

A new book that explores a fast-growing field of effective field theories (EFTs) and their applications to research in elementary particle and nuclear physics, as well as in condensed matter physics and physics of gravity has been released by World Scientific in January 2016. "Effective Field Theories" by Dr. Alexey A Petrov and Dr. Andrew Blechman describes how the methods of effective theories make the solutions of complicated multiscale problems in quantum physics easier by reducing them to several single-scale problems. This book is a broad-based text intended to help advanced graduate students to learn the techniques and methods of EFTs. Applications of these techniques to study problems in particle physics, dark matter, and quantum and classical gravity are explored.

"We noticed that graduate students throughout the world often have a hard time learning how to apply many techniques they pick up in classes to their research," said Petrov. "Additionally, for studies of EFT techniques, they had to resort to many research papers and reviews, which would often lead to confusion, as many of those papers have different notations and approaches. A self-containing book would certainly eliminate such issues." The resulting title, "Effective Field Theories," emerged after five years of work, with parts of it already used in teaching WSU graduate students.

Dr. Petrov, an expert in theoretical particle physics and astrophysics, is a Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Wayne State University. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Award, WSU Board of Governors Faculty Recognition Award, and many others. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Dr. Blechman is a Physics teacher at the Roper Schools and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Wayne State University.