A VARIATIONAL APPROACH TO 3-NUCLEON AND 4-NUCLEON SYSTEMS

The correlated Hyperspherical Harmonic technique is a powerful tool fo r describing few-nucleon systems. The triton and alpha-particle bindin g energies, calculated with different realistic potentials, are found in good agreement with the corresponding estimates of other sophistica ted techniques. Accurate results for p - d and n - H-3 scattering obse rvables are obtained, as well. Interesting comparisons are done with e xperimental data in order to test the various potential models. Of par ticular importance is the correct inclusion of the Coulomb repulsion b etween charged particles, responsible for sizeable interference contri butions. The study of the capture reaction d(p, gamma)He-3 is also bri efly discussed.