The Nuclear Shell Model Toward the Drip Lines

We describe the “islands of inversion” that occur when approaching the neutron drip line around the magic numbers N=20, N=28 and N=40 in the framework of the Interacting Shell Model in very large valence spaces. We explain these configuration inversions (and the associated shape transitions) as the result of the competition between the spherical mean field (monopole) which favors magicity and the correlations (multipole) which favor deformed intruder states. We also show that the N=20 and N=28 islands are in reallity a single one, which for the Magnesium isotopes is limited by N=18 and N=32.