Effective field theory for nuclear vibrations with quantified uncertainties

The authors develop an effective field theory for low-energy nuclear vibrations and use Bayesian statistics to estimate uncertainties for the model energies and transition rates. From the consistent description of a range of Ni, Ru, Pd, Cd, and Te isotopes within the theoretical uncertainties, they conclude that these nuclei can be described as anharmonic vibrators, consistent with older ``textbook'' interpretations but in contrast to some more recent interpretations.