The programme “Synergies in non-equilibrium QFT: from heavy ions to the cosmos” will take place from 21 June to 9 July 2027 at the Bernoulli Center at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland. There will also be a retreat week at Les Diablerets from 11 to 16 July.

Non-equilibrium quantum field theory is central to both heavy-ion physics and primordial cosmology. Despite the vastly different scales involved, the two communities face strikingly similar questions: thermalisation, phase transitions, non-thermal fixed points, turbulence, and the emergence of effective descriptions. They also rely on closely related tools, such as the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism, kinetic theory, classical-statistical methods, and effective field theory, yet these have often developed independently.

The programme aims to bring these communities together, exchange methods and perspectives, and identify problems where progress in one field can drive advances in the other. Symposium weeks combine invited and contributed talks with a deliberately light schedule, leaving ample time for discussion and collaboration.

The programme opens with an international school for early-career researchers on real-time and out-of-equilibrium QFT techniques (21-25 June) followed by two symposia: Non-equilibrium phase transitions and critical dynamics (28 June-2 July) and Far from equilibrium dynamics and thermalisation (5-9 July).