APS DNP 2026 Fall Meeting

Workshops

Sessions titles:

1. Advances in Fission Theory and Experiment
2. Energy Correlators in High Energy Nuclear Physics
3. Fixed-Target Program at the Electron-Ion-Collider
4. From pA to eA: Understanding the Fundamentals of QCD
5. Hard Exclusive Production of Mesons in Lepton Scattering
6. Identifying DIS Electrons in ePIC
7. Jet Quenching Physics from Large to Small Systems at RHIC and the LHC
8. Nuclear Science for Security and Defense Applications
9. Pressure and Stress Distributions in the Proton
10. Prospects from High luminosity experiments
11. Recent progress in beta decay studies
12. Role of nuclear physics in developing radioisotope applications
13. Spin Physics at the EIC: Polarized Ion Beams and Accelerator Readiness
14. Symmetry-Aware Machine Learning in Strong-Interaction Physics

Overview for each session:

1. Advances in Fission Theory and Experiment: The workshop goal is to review the current state-of-the art in ab-initio fission theory, fission modeling and fission experiments. Ab-initio and first-principle microscopic models can give insight into fission fragment properties following scission that cannot be measured directly. The de-excitation of the excited fission fragments then follows via neutron and gamma emission that can be modeled in either deterministic or Monte Carlo fashion, giving rise to average fission observables, spectra, and correlations between fragments, neutrons, and gamma rays (for the Monte Carlo descriptions). Information about nuclear structure, such as level densities and discrete nuclear levels, are included in modeling and need to be constrained through experimental measurements. Experimentally accessible quantities including, fission fragment mass and charge distributions, kinetic energy distributions of fission fragments, prompt fission gamma ray and neutron multiplicity and energy distributions can be compared to theoretical predictions. Increasingly, experimental measurements of correlations between fission fragments, neutrons, and gamma rays are being used to understand the fission process.
2. Energy Correlators in High Energy Nuclear Physics: Energy correlators have, in recent years, attracted significant attention as a novel way to probe the properties of QCD matter created in high-energy nuclear collisions, offering a particularly clean bridge between theory, phenomenology, and experiment. Their formulation in terms of energy flow observables enables systematically improvable theoretical calculations while remaining directly connected to experimentally accessible measurements. This workshop aims to review recent progress along these three fronts, highlighting new conceptual developments, advances in perturbative and non-perturbative modeling, and emerging experimental results from collider programs. A central goal is to foster dialogue across communities, identify open challenges, and outline promising directions for future research. By bringing together experts from different top US research institutions, we seek to clarify the role of energy correlators as precision tools for studying QCD dynamics in complex many-body environments.
3. A Fixed-Target Program at the Electron-Ion Collider: This workshop examines the feasibility and physics potential of a fixed-target program at the future Electron–Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory. While ePIC is optimized for collider-mode e+A interactions, we propose an additional fixed-target configuration enabling p+A and A+A collisions over the largely unexplored energy range CME ≈ 3–23 GeV. This program would provide a unique opportunity to map the transition between cold and hot QCD matter across a broad set of ion species. The availability of polarized light-ion beams further opens original perspectives on spin phenomena in A+A collisions. Beyond its fundamental physics impact, such a program would deliver essential nuclear data relevant for transport models and space radiation studies, critical for future long-duration space missions.
4. From p+A to e+A: Understanding the Fundamentals of QCD} The workshop will bring together theorists and experimentalists to examine cold nuclear matter (CNM) effects across hadronic and lepton–nucleus collisions, with the goal of developing a unified understanding of QCD in nuclei. Proton–nucleus (p+A) measurements at RHIC, the LHC, and fixed-target experiments have revealed rich phenomena, including tantalizing hints of gluon saturation and the Color Glass Condensate (CGC), modification of nuclear PDFs, formation of QGP-like media in small systems, and final-state interactions that modify parton propagation and hadronization. These results have raised fundamental questions about the onset of collectivity, the role of initial- versus final-state effects, and the space–time dynamics of parton energy loss and hadron formation in nuclear matter. Building on these insights, the workshop will explore how future electron–nucleus (e+A) collisions at the Electron–Ion Collider (EIC) can provide precise and differential probes of nuclear parton structure, saturation dynamics, and hadronization mechanisms in a clean electroweak environment. By connecting the lessons learned from p+A collisions to the new opportunities in e+A, the workshop aims to sharpen our understanding of QCD dynamics in nuclei and chart a path toward a comprehensive description of strong interactions in cold and hot nuclear matter.
5. Hard Exclusive Production of Mesons in Lepton Scattering:  A rigorous understanding of longitudinal photon contributions, considered to be dominant for most exclusive final states, is critical for the interpretation of both exclusive  and semi-inclusive observables, providing access to three-dimensional QCD partonic distributions, such as Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs) and Transverse Momentum Distributions (TMDs).  Measurements of multiplicities and different single- and double-spin asymmetries in hard exclusive production of scalar and, even more importantly, vector mesons  provide important information about the phenomenology of GPDs and TMDs. Although a wealth of data from various Jefferson Lab experiments is already available, its incorporation into phenomenological studies has been slow, and a significant portion of data from other leptoproduction experiments is still missing from global fits. We plan to discuss the existing challenges and outline a path forward for improving the analysis of low center-of-mass electroproduction experiments in general and Jefferson Lab data in particular.
6. Identifying Deep-Inelastic Scattering Electrons in ePIC:  This workshop will discuss and review how the ePIC detector will be used to identify scattered DIS electrons from electron-ion collisions at the EIC, and its DIS physics program.
7. Jet Quenching Physics from Large to Small Systems at RHIC and the LHC:  Jet quenching is one of the pillars of the discovery of quark-gluon plasma formed in collisions of large nuclei at relativistic energies. The modification of parton showers, the transfer of energy to the plasma, and the specific experimental observables make this one of the most fascinating areas of nuclear physics. Recent data taking at both RHIC and the LHC in oxygen-oxygen collisions indicate strikingly different jet quenching signatures compared to proton-nucleus data. In addition, the collection of the largest data sets to date in heavy ion collision (Au+Au and Pb+Pb), along with new instrumentation, including the sPHENIX experiment, can provide stringent constraints on the underlying physics, relative to single quenching parameters. This workshop aims to enable a lively discussion of the latest developments in theory and experiment and map a path forward towards a more comprehensive understanding.
8. Nuclear Science for Security and Defense Applications:  This workshop will highlight current research in nuclear science that impacts national security and defense applications and help identify the overlap between the techniques and nuclear data used for these applications and for basic nuclear physics.
9. Pressure and Stress Distributions in the Proton:  High-precision measurements of highly virtual exclusive reactions at Jefferson Lab have revealed an astonishing internal pressure in the proton on the order of 1035 Pascals, surpassing even the pressure at the core of a neutron star. This landmark discovery is opening entirely new directions in the study of proton structure, transforming our understanding of the hadronic stress-energy tensor. The workshop will bring together leading theorists and experimentalists to present the latest results, illuminate the internal pressure landscape of the proton, and discuss new results from dedicated high-energy experiments that are driving this emerging frontier of hadronic physics.
10. Prospects for High Luminosity Experiments:  Two large-acceptance and high-luminosity experiments have been approved at PAC53 at Jefferson Laboratory, primarily to measure Double Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering. We will present an overview of nucleon properties that can be access by the proposed measurements. This workshop will foster new physics opportunities for the two future setups.
11. Recent Progress in Beta Decay Studies:  Studies of beta decay processes are one of the main directions in modern nuclear physics. New and improved powerful facilities at Argonne and FRIB, equipped with state-of-art arrays, allow us to cross the borders of known nuclei. Nuclear structure and nuclear astrophysics benefit from new data verifying model extrapolations. Additionally, the beta decay precision frontier yields new results on rare processes involving forbidden decays with low probabilities. The workshop will review the newest results and their impact on nuclear structure, astrophysics, and fundamental aspects of weak interactions.
12. The Role of Nuclear Physics in Developing Radioisotope Applications:  Nuclear physics data and techniques are important for producing and using radioisotopes in applications. Medical isotopes are of broad interest for the benefit of society. Nuclear physics data and techniques are vital in identifying, characterizing, producing, separating, and using these radioisotopes. A wide spectrum of expertise and techniques, from identification to final use will be discussed, including theoretical calculations as well as experiments.
13. Spin Physics at the EIC: Polarized Ion Beams and Accelerator Readiness:  Polarized ion beams are essential for realizing the scientific program of the Electron-Ion Collider. This workshop will highlight the physics opportunities enabled by polarized light-ion beams and review the present status of key developments required for their implementation, including polarized ion sources, injector chain readiness, and hadron polarimetry. These efforts are being coordinated within the EPIOS scientific consortium as part of a broader initiative to prepare polarized ion capabilities for EIC operations. The APS Division of Nuclear Physics meeting provides an ideal forum to present this progress to the community, foster engagement, and support the development of the scientific and technical workforce for the EIC era.
14. Symmetry-Aware Machine Learning in Strong-Interaction Physics: Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming a powerful tool in theoretical nuclear physics and QCD, but its greatest impact will come not only from faster computation, but from enabling new discoveries. This workshop will explore a paradigm shift in which physicists move beyond asking AI systems to solve predefined problems and instead embed first-principles physics — symmetries, conservation laws, and theoretical insights — directly into machine-learning models.