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This volume contains invited papers and contributions delivered at the International Conference on Hamiltonian Mechanics: Integrability and Chaotic Behaviour, held in Tornn, Poland during the summer of 1993. The conference was supported by the NATO Scientific and Environmental Affairs Division as an Advanced Research Workshop. In fact, it was the first scientific conference in all Eastern Europe supported by NATO. The meeting was expected to establish contacts between East and West experts as well as to study the current state of the art in the area of Hamiltonian Mechanics and its applications. I am sure that the informal atmosphere of the city of Torun, the birthplace of Nicolaus Copernicus, stimulated many valuable scientific exchanges. The first idea for this cnference was carried out by Prof Andrzej J. Maciejewski and myself, more than two years ago, during his visit in Greece. It was planned for about forty well-known scientists from East and West. At that time participation of a scientist from Eastern Europe in an Organising Committee of a NATO Conference was not allowed. But always there is the first time. Our plans for such a'small'conference, as a first attempt in the new European situation -the Europe without borders -quickly passed away. The names of our invited speakers, authorities in their field, were a magnet for many colleagues from all over the world.

The last decade has been witness to many exciting and rapid developments in the fields of Nuclear Physics and Intermediate Energy Physics, the interface between Nuclear and Elementary Particle Physics. These developments involved to a large extent the sub nucleonic degrees of freedom in nuclei. In deep inelastic lepton scattering from nuclei, for example, it was observed that the quark structure of the nucleon is influenced by the nuclear medium. Also, the spin-dependent structure function of the nucleon was found to differ from sum rules based on SU(3) symmetry, a discrepancy referred to as the'spin crisis'. In pion electroproduction at threshold and in the production of pions and other mesons in heavy ion collisions at intermediate energies interesting experimental results have been obtained, which triggered lively theoretical discussions. Furthermore, the search for the quark-gluon plasma phase of hadronic matter, a phase that is supposed to have existed in the first few seconds of the Big Bang, has been intensified. Not only were these developments accompanied by technical developments, such as the building of new experimental facilities, but also extensive theoretical efforts have been directed towards understanding these phenomena. These concerted efforts will hopefully lead to an understanding of the transition from the non-perturbative QCD regime to the perturbative one, in which the quark structure of nucleons is better understood. All of the aforementioned developments occur at a high pace, making it difficult to incorporate them into the courses offered to advanced students.

This volume contains the lectures and contributions presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute (ASI) on'Frontier Topics in Nuclear Physics', held at Predeal in Romania from 24 August to 4 September 1993. The ASI stands in a row of 23 Predeal Summer Schools organized by the Institute of Atomic Physics (Bucharest) in Predeal or Poiana-Brasov during the last 25 years. The main topics of the ASI were cluster radioactivity, fission and fusion. the production of very heavy elements, nuclear structure described with microscopic and collective models, weak: interaction and double beta decay, nuclear astrophysics, and heavy ion reactions from low to ultrarelativistic energies. The content of this book is ordered according to these topics. The ASI started with a lecture by Professor Greiner on the'Present and future of nuclear physics', showing the most important new directions of research and the interdisciplinary relations of nuclear physics with other fields of physics. This lecture is printed in the first chapter of the book.

Ladies and Gentlemen, dear colleagues, Welcome in Bodrum to the NASion Hot and Dense Nuclear Matter! Welcome also to Mrs. Governor Dr. Lale AYTAMAN. We are very honored, that you, Governor of the Mugla-State, came here to greet us. We are particularly grateful to you that you offered help and assured us to do everything that we can enjoy two safe weeks in Bodrum, in this wonderful area of your country. I have chosen Bodrum as the place for our NASI because I like this historic region where many cultures meet (e. g., Oriental and European (Greek, Roman) culture) and where you find numerous places which played a role in ancient science and in early Christianity- I mention Milet (Thales) and Ephesus (Apostle Paulus), both of which are close by. Our NASI will exhibit the most recent developments in high energy heavy ion physics. The meeting is both a school and a conference: A school, because there are very many advanced students, who frequently are themselves already top researchers, attending the lectures of distinguished scientists and leading researchers. It is also a conference because new material, new results of this exciting and wonderful field - our field - high energy heavy ion physics will be presented. It is the topic of hot and dense nuclear matter, which we are focusing on.