  The many-body system comprising a He nucleus, three electrons, and a positron
has been studied using the exact diagonalization technique. The purpose has
been to clarify to which extent the system can be considered as a
distinguishable positronium (Ps) atom interacting with a He atom and, thereby,
to pave the way to a practical atomistic modeling of Ps states and annihilation
in matter. The maximum value of the distance between the positron and the
nucleus is constrained and the Ps atom at different distances from the nucleus
is identified from the electron and positron densities, as well as from the
electron-positron distance and center-of-mass distributions. The polarization
of the Ps atom increases as its distance from the nucleus decreases. A
depletion of the He electron density, particularly large at low density values,
has been observed. The ortho-Ps pick-off annihilation rate calculated as the
overlap of the positron and the free He electron densities has to be corrected
for the observed depletion, specially at large pores/voids.
