Effective field theory for dilute fermions with pairing

Effective field theory (EFT) methods for a uniform system of fermions with short-range, natural interactions are extended to include pairing correlations, as part of a program to develop a systematic Kohn–Sham density functional theory (DFT) for medium and heavy nuclei. An effective action formalism for local composite operators leads to a free-energy functional that includes pairing by applying an inversion method order by order in the EFT expansion. A consistent renormalization scheme is demonstrated for the uniform system through next-to-leading order, which includes induced-interaction corrections to pairing.