Reconstructing physical models to explain cosmic acceleration

In recent years many models have been developed to explain cosmic acceleration. Effective field theory (EFT) is an efficient and generic formalism to study how these models alter the cosmological background and perturbations. However, it is unclear how constraints placed on EFT parameters relate to underlying physical theories. In this talk I will present a reconstruction from EFT to physical theories which enables this mapping and discuss a number of applications.