Effective field theory – concepts and applications

Effective field theory provides the modern perspective on renormalization theory and explains why we can make meaningful and precise predictions without knowing the Theory of Everything. By separating physical effects on different distance scales it is also an efficient tool to deal with the strong interaction in various regimes and to sum large logarithms in perturbation theory. The two lectures given at the school provide an introduction and cover mostly textbook material. The write-up below is therefore only meant as a brief reminder of the topics discussed, and provides references to textbooks or other lecture notes for further reading. Further details can also be found in the slides available on-line.