The effective field theory treatment of quantum gravity

Abstract

This is a pedagogical introduction to the treatment of quantum general relativity as an effective field theory. It starts with an overview of the methods of effective field theory and includes an explicit example. Quantum general relativity matches this framework and I discuss gravitational examples as well as the limits of the effective field theory. I also discuss the insights from effective field theory on the gravitational effects on running couplings in the perturbative regime.Comment: Presented at the Sixth International School on Field Theory and Gravitation, Petropolis, Brazil, April 2012, to be published in the proceedings. 22 pages, 3 figure