A comparative study of various representations of the shell model density of states, given its first four moments (centroid, width, skewness, and excess) is made. The Cornish-Fisher representation, which is obtained by the variable transformation method, is shown to be useful in studies using spectral distribution methods.

• Received 2 June 1986

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.34.2330