  The traditional nuclear shell model approach is extended to include many-body
forces. The empirical Hamiltonian with a three-body force is constructed for
the identical nucleons on the 0f7/2 shell. Manifestations of the three-body
force in spectra, binding energies, seniority mixing, particle-hole symmetry,
electromagnetic and particle transition rates are investigated. It is shown
that in addition to the usual expansion of the valence space within the
tranditional two-body shell model, the three-body component in the Hamiltonian
can be an important part improving the quality of the theoretical approach.
