This volume contains the invited contributions that were presented at the Predeal International Summer School in Nuclear Physics 2006. It covers the recent achievements in the fields of nuclear structure, double beta decay, nuclear multifragmentation, kaon and dilepton production in heavy ion collisions, and the quark–gluon plasma. The treatment is both theoretical and experimental, with emphasis on the collective aspects and related phase transitions. The papers are authored by many leading researchers in the field.Contents:Simultaneous Description of Four Positive and Four Negative Parity Bands (A A Raduta & C M Raduta)Precision Measurements with Ion Traps (A Jokinen)Nuclear Symmetries and Anomalies (L Zamick & A Escuderos)Modern Shell-Model Calculations (A Covello)The Role of Instabilities in Nuclear Fragmentation (V Baran et al.)New Spectroscopy with Cold Fission (D S Delion & A Săndulescu)Questions of the Microscopical Optical Potential for Alpha-Particles at Low Energies (M Avrigeanu)The Physics of Deep Inelastic Scattering at HERA (C Diaconu)and other papersReadership: Advanced undergraduates and graduate students, academics and researchers in many-body systems, nuclear and particle physics.