  The relativistic mean-field framework, extended to include correlations
related to restoration of broken symmetries and to fluctuations of the
quadrupole deformation, is applied to a study of shape transitions in Nd
isotopes. It is demonstrated that the microscopic self-consistent approach,
based on global effective interactions, can describe not only general features
of transitions between spherical and deformed nuclei, but also the singular
properties of excitation spectra and transition rates at the critical point of
quantum shape phase transition.
