A simple and efficient numerical scheme to integrate non-local potentials

As nuclear wave functions have to obey the Pauli principle, potentials issued from reaction theory or Hartree-Fock formalism using finite-range interactions contain a non-local part. Written in coordinate space representation, the Schrödinger equation becomes integro-differential, which is difficult to solve, contrary to the case of local potentials, where it is an ordinary differential equation. A simple and powerful method was proposed several years ago, with the trivially equivalent potential method, where the non-local potential is replaced by an equivalent local potential, which is state dependent and has to be determined iteratively. Its main disadvantage, however, is the appearance of divergences in potentials if the wave functions have nodes, which is generally the case. We will show that divergences can be removed by a slight modification of the trivially equivalent potential method, leading to a very simple, stable and precise numerical technique to deal with non-local potentials. Examples will be provided with the calculation of the Hartree-Fock potential and associated wave functions of ¹⁶O using the finite-range N³LO realistic interaction.