Where high-energy physics and statistical mechanics meet

In the past statistical physics and elementary particle physics have had many interesting interactions and various topics have been held in common. We have in mind studies of phase transitions and symmetry breaking, the renormalization group and universality, or the Gibbs formalism itself which is also the underlying structure of quantum field theory. Today there are new opportunities of fruitful exchanges between high-energy physics and statistical mechanics, as for example in cosmological problems and black hole physics, or in the idea of an emerging space-time within theories of quantum gravity or in the concept of entanglement which permeates much of today's quantum many body physics. In this colloquium we go over a number of such domains of common interest, mostly from the perspective of nonequilibrium physics.