The breakdown of the N = 20 magic number in the so-called island of inversion around 32 Mg is well established. Recently developed large-scale shell-model calculations suggest a transitional region between normal-and intruder-dominated nuclear ground states, thus modifying the boundary of the island of inversion. In particular, a dramatic change in single-particle structure is predicted between the ground states of 30 Mg and 32 Mg, with the latter consisting nearly purely of 2p-2h N = 20 cross-shell configurations. Single-neutron knockout experiments on 30,32 Mg projectiles have been performed. We report on a first direct observation of intruder configurations in the ground states of these very neutron-rich nuclei. Spectroscopic factors to low-lying negative-parity states in the knockout residues are deduced and compare well with shell-model predictions.

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