Second RPA (SRPA) calculations of nuclear response are performed and
analyzed. Unlike in most other SRPA applications, the ground state,
approximated by the Hartree-Fock (HF) ground state, and the residual couplings
are described by the same Hamiltonian and no arbitrary truncations are imposed
on the model space. Finite-range interactions are used and thus divergence
problems are not present. We employ a realistic interaction, derived from the
Argonne V18 potenial using the unitary correlation operator method (UCOM), as
well as the simple Brink-Boeker interaction. Representative results are
discussed, mainly on giant resonances and low-lying collective states. The
focus of the present work is not on the comparison with data, but rather on
technical and physical aspects of the method. We present how the large-scale
eigenvalue problem that SRPA entails can be treated, and demonstrate how the
method operates in producing self-energy corrections and fragmentation. The
so-called diagonal approximation is conditionally validated. Stability problems
are traced back to missing ground-state correlations.Comment: 13 pages, incl. 9 figures, 1 tabl