*Review* **The Nuclear Shell Model towards the Drip Lines**

**B. Alex Brown**

Department of Physics and Astronomy, and the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1321, USA; brown@frib.msu.edu

**Abstract:** Applications of configuration-mixing methods for nuclei near the proton and neutron drip lines are discussed. A short review of magic numbers is presented. Prospects for advances in the regions of four new "outposts" are highlighted: 28O, 42Si, 60Ca and 78Ni. Topics include shell gaps, single-particle properties, islands of inversion, collectivity, neutron decay, neutron halos, two-proton decay, effective charge, and quenching in knockout reactions.

**Keywords:** nuclear shell model; configuration-interaction method; magic numbers; proton drip line; neutron drip line; proton decay; neutron decay; collectivity; islands of inverson; effective charge
