  We apply a contour deformation technique in momentum space to the newly
developed Gamow shell model, and study the drip-line nuclei 5He, 6He and 7He. A
major problem in Gamow shell-model studies of nuclear many-body systems is the
increasing dimensionality of many-body configurations due to the large number
of resonant and complex continuum states necessary to reproduce bound and
resonant state energies. We address this problem using two different effective
operator approaches generalized to the complex momentum plane. These are the
Lee-Suzuki similarity transformation method for complex interactions and the
multi-reference perturbation theory method. The combination of these two
approaches results in a large truncation of the relevant configurations
compared with direct diagonalization. This offers interesting perspectives for
studies of weakly bound systems.
