Two- and three-alpha systems with nonlocal potential

Two body data alone cannot determine the potential uniquely, one needs three-body data as well. A method is presented here which simultaneously fits local or nonlocal potentials to two-body and three-body observables. The interaction of composite particles, due to the Pauli effect and the indistinguishability of the constituent particles, is genuinely nonlocal. As an example, we use a Pauli-correct nonlocal fish-bone type optical model for the $\alpha-\alpha$ potential and derive the fitting parameters such that it reproduces the two-$\alpha$ and three-$\alpha$ experimental data.