Microscopic structure and decay characteristics of giant resonances

Energies, sum rules and partial decay widths of giant resonances are calculated solving exactly the continuum RPA equations corresponding to a central Woods-Saxon potential. An approximated treatment of those quantities in terms of pole expansions of the Green function is also performed. It is found that the approximated results agree well with the exact ones. The expansions allow one to understand the microscopic structure of the resonances. Comparison with experimental data is made and a search for physically meaningful resonances is carried out.