Effective field theory of large-scale structure Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-11-05
The effective field theory of large-scale structure describes long-wavelength matter dynamics while representing unresolved short-scale motion through an effective stress tensor. It supplements standard perturbation theory in cosmology with symmetry-allowed terms whose coefficients can be calibrated from simulations or data. A leading correction scales as . Its role is to account for short-scale influence on long-scale predictions, not to resolve individual collapsed objects.[ref]
The Effective Field Theory of Cosmological Large Scale Structures by John Joseph M. Carrasco and others. Abstract and effective-fluid construction: short-scale dynamics, effective parameters and perturbative observables