Old and New Magic Numbers

The discovery of magic numbers led to the shell model. They indicated closure of major shells and are robust: proton magic numbers are rather independent of the occupation of neutron orbits and vice versa. Recently the magic property became less stringent and we hear a lot about the discovery of new magic numbers. These, however, indicate sub-shell closures and strongly depend on occupation numbers and hence, may be called quasi-magic numbers. Some of these have been known for many years and the mechanism for their appearance as well as disappearance, was well understood within the simple shell model. The situation will be illustrated by a few examples which demonstrate the simple features of the shell model. Will this simplicity emerge from the complex computations of nuclear many-body theory?