Effective field theory for dilute Fermi systems

The virtues of an effective field theory (EFT) approach to many-body problems are illustrated by deriving the expansion for the energy of an homogeneous, interacting Fermi gas at low density and zero temperature. A renormalization scheme based on dimensional regularization with minimal subtraction leads to a more transparent power-counting procedure and diagrammatic expansion than conventional many-body approaches. Coefficients of terms in the expansion with logarithms of the Fermi momentum are determined by the renormalization properties of the EFT that describes few-body scattering. Lessons for an EFT treatment of nuclear matter are discussed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.