In physics, an effective field theory is, as any effective theory, an approximate theory, (usually a quantum field theory) that includes appropriate degrees of freedom to describe physical phenomena occurring at a chosen length scale, while ignoring substructure and degrees of freedom at shorter distances (or, equivalently, at higher energies).
Read more about Effective Field Theory: The Renormalization Group
Famous quotes containing the words effective, field and/or theory:
“[Madness] is the jail we could all end up in. And we know it. And watch our step. For a lifetime. We behave. A fantastic and entire system of social control, by the threat of example as effective over the general population as detention centers in dictatorships, the image of the madhouse floats through every mind for the course of its lifetime.”
—Kate Millett (b. 1934)
“Hardly a book of human worth, be it heavens own secret, is honestly placed before the reader; it is either shunned, given a Periclean funeral oration in a hundred and fifty words, or interred in the potters field of the newspapers back pages.”
—Edward Dahlberg (19001977)
“A theory if you hold it hard enough
And long enough gets rated as a creed....”
—Robert Frost (18741963)