Preface

Abstract

These are the proceedings of the 36th edition of the Winter Workshop on Nuclear Dynamics, which was held In Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in March 2020. Our meeting was the final in-person gathering in our field before the international lockdown period due to Covid-19. As in previous years the unique character of this conference series has allowed us to bring scientists from various fields of nuclear physics together to discuss their scientific achievements.At the high-energy frontier very exciting results not only from the heavy-ion collisions but also smaller systems at the LHC were shown. At this time the LHC experiments are upgrading their detectors for the third large run period, which is scheduled to start in early 2022. Several talks focused on the future experimental program at the LHC. At the lower energies the second RHIC beam energy scan is underway to span the gap between the SPS and RHIC and search for critical phenomena in the nuclear matter phase diagram. This program is complemented by spin and small systems measurements at the highest RHIC energies. The future programs of sPHENIX and the planned electron-ion collider (EIC) were represented as well.Theory progress has been made across all these different energy and system size regimes, and the new data, in particular from the LHC and RHIC, are motivating more detailed modeling and a deeper understanding of the underlying physics.These proceedings of the 36th Winter Workshop on Nuclear Dynamics again provide a snapshot of the status of the field. The articles, many of which are written by some of the most promising young scientists in the field, are conveying the present excitement that permeates all subfields of nuclear science.All papers published in this volume have been peer reviewed through processes administered by the Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing.Rene Bellwied (University of Houston, USA)John Harris (Yale University, USA)Claudia Ratti (University of Houston, USA)Anthony Timmins (University of Houston, USA)