A different formulation of the effective interaction hyperspherical harmonics (EIHH) method, suitable for non-local potentials, is presented. The EIHH method for local interactions is first shortly reviewed to point out the problems of an extension t
o non-local potentials. A viable solution is proposed and, as an application, results on the ground-state properties of 4- and 6-nucleon systems are presented. One finds a substantial acceleration in the convergence rate of the hyperspherical harmonics series. Perspectives for an application to scattering cross sections, via the Lorentz transform method are discussed.
Integral transform approaches are numerous in many fields of physics, but in most cases limited to the use of the Laplace kernel. However, it is well known that the inversion of the Laplace transform is very problematic, so that the function related
to the physical observable is in most cases unaccessible. The great advantage of kernels of bell-shaped form has been demonstrated in few-body nuclear systems. In fact the use of the Lorentz kernel has allowed to overcome the stumbling block of the ab initio description of reactions to the full continuum of systems of more than three particles. The problem of finding kernels of similar form, applicable to many-body problems deserves particular attention. If this search were successful the integral transform approach might represent the only viable ab initio access to many observables that are not calculable directly.
The LIT method has allowed ab initio calculations of electroweak cross sections in light nuclear systems. This review presents a description of the method from both a general and a more technical point of view, as well as a summary of the results obt
ained by its application. The remarkable features of the LIT approach, which make it particularly efficient in dealing with a general reaction involving continuum states, are underlined. Emphasis is given on the results obtained for electroweak cross sections of few--nucleon systems. Their implications for the present understanding of microscopic nuclear dynamics are discussed.
