  This White Paper presents the community inputs and scientific conclusions
from the Hot and Cold QCD Town Meeting that took place September 23-25, 2022 at
MIT, as part of the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee (NSAC) 2023 Long Range
Planning process. A total of 424 physicists registered for the meeting. The
meeting highlighted progress in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) nuclear physics
since the 2015 LRP (LRP15) and identified key questions and plausible paths to
obtaining answers to those questions, defining priorities for our research over
the coming decade. In defining the priority of outstanding physics
opportunities for the future, both prospects for the short (~ 5 years) and
longer term (5-10 years and beyond) are identified together with the
facilities, personnel and other resources needed to maximize the discovery
potential and maintain United States leadership in QCD physics worldwide. This
White Paper is organized as follows: In the Executive Summary, we detail the
Recommendations and Initiatives that were presented and discussed at the Town
Meeting, and their supporting rationales. Section 2 highlights major progress
and accomplishments of the past seven years. It is followed, in Section 3, by
an overview of the physics opportunities for the immediate future, and in
relation with the next QCD frontier: the EIC. Section 4 provides an overview of
the physics motivations and goals associated with the EIC. Section 5 is devoted
to the workforce development and support of diversity, equity and inclusion.
This is followed by a dedicated section on computing in Section 6. Section 7
describes the national need for nuclear data science and the relevance to QCD
research.
