  We investigate collective multipole excitations for closed shell nuclei from
16O to 208Pb using correlated realistic nucleon -nucleon interactions in the
framework of the random phase approximation (RPA). The dominant short-range
central and tensor correlations a re treated explicitly within the Unitary
Correlation Operator Method (UCOM), which provides a phase-shift equivalent
correlated interaction V_UCOM adapted to simple uncorrelated Hilbert spaces.
The same unitary transformation that defines the correlated interaction is used
to derive correlated transition operators. Using V_UCOM we solve the
Hartree-Fock problem and employ the single-particle state s as starting point
for the RPA. By construction, the UCOM-RPA is fully self-consistent, i.e. the
same correlated nucleon-nucleon interact ion is used in calculations of the HF
ground state and in the residual RPA interaction. Consequently, the spurious
state associated with t he center-of-mass motion is properly removed and the
sum-rules are exhausted within +-3%. The UCOM-RPA scheme results in a
collective character of giant monopole, dipole, and quadrupole resonances in
closed-shell nuclei across the nuclear chart. For the isoscalar giant monopole
resonance, the resonance energies are in agreement with experiment hinting at a
reasonable compressibility. However, in the 1- and 2+ channels the resonance
energies are overestimated due to missing long-range correlations and
three-body contributions.
