Center-of-mass corrections revisited: a many-body expansion approach

A many-body expansion for the computation of the charge form factor in the center-of-mass system is proposed. For convergence testing purposes, we apply our formalism to the case of the harmonic oscillator shell model, where an exact solution exists. We also work out the details of the calculation involving realistic nuclear wave functions. Results obtained for the Argonne $v$18 two-nucleon and Urbana-IX three-nucleon interactions are reported. No corrections due to the meson-exchange charge density are taken into account.