Research Collaboration ESO / CERN / ESA

The connections between Astronomy, Cosmology and Fundamental Physics are well known, and become closer every day. Recent exciting developments in these fields include the structures in the cosmic background radiation, evidence for an accelerating Universe, searches for dark matter candidates, evidence for neutrino oscillations, space experiments on fundamental physics, and discoveries of extrasolar planets. ESO, CERN and ESA are thus involved in scientific endeavours and technologies which overlap considerably. The three organisations decided to share their expertise, among others, by co-organising and co-sponsoring Joint Symposia.

The symposia are meant to give a broad overview of scientific areas of interest to the communities of the three organizations, including current and future developments in the fields of fundamental physics, particle physics and cosmology.

In 2002, the ESO-CERN-ESA Symposium on Astronomy, Cosmology and Fundamental Physics was held in Garching, ESO, while the most recent one, on Relativity, Matter and Cosmology took place in Bern in 2005, and was one of the highlights of the International Year of Physics.