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this entry is about the concept of inquantum field theory, for the concept in group theory/representation theory see at effective group action; for disambiguation see effective action

Contents

Idea

In the context of (perturbative) quantum field theory an effective action is an object obtained from a more fundamental (interaction) action functional by “averaging out” certain dependencies.

Details

• For the plain effective action see at S-matrix the section Effective action.

• More generally, for the relative effective action see at effective field theory the section Relative effective actions.

Related concepts

• quasiparticle

References

A discussion (with an eye towards supersymmetric quantum field theory and Seiberg duality) is in section 2.1 of

• Flip Tanedo, Notes on Seibergology (pdf)

A review of effective actions in the background field formalism is in section 3.1 of

• Darren Trevor Grasso, Higher order contributions to the effective action of $\mathcal{N} = 2$ and $4$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories from heat kernel techniques in superspace Thesis (2007) (web)

In the context of the BV-BRST formalism see e.g.

• Kevin Costello. Renormalisation and the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism (2007). (arXiv:0706.1533).

• Pavel Mnev. Discrete BF theory (2008). (arXiv:0809.1160).