  We present an overview of low-momentum two-nucleon and many-body interactions
and their use in calculations of nuclei and infinite matter. The softening of
phenomenological and effective field theory (EFT) potentials by renormalization
group (RG) transformations that decouple low and high momenta leads to greatly
enhanced convergence in few- and many-body systems while maintaining a
decreasing hierarchy of many-body forces. This review surveys the RG-based
technology and results, discusses the connections to chiral EFT, and clarifies
various misconceptions.
