Criteria of Renormalizability in Effective Field Theories

Abstract

Any effective field theory relies on power counting rules that allow one to perform a systematic expansion of calculated quantities in terms of some soft scales. However, a naive power counting can be violated due to the presence of various hard scales in a given scheme. A typical example of such a scale is an ultraviolet regulator. This issue is particularly challenging when the interaction is nonperturbative. The power counting is expected to be restored in the course of renormalization, that is by redefining bare low-energy constants in the effective Lagrangian. Whether this procedure eventually leads to a self-consistent framework is not a priory obvious. We discuss various criteria of renormalizability in application to nuclear chiral effective field theory and provide several instructive counterexamples.