  The ground state and low-lying continuum states of 6He are found within a
shell model scheme, in a basis of two-particle states built out of continuum
p-states of the unbound 5He nucleus, using a simple pairing contact-delta
interaction. This accounts for the Borromean character of the bound ground
state, revealing its composition. We investigate the quadrupole response of the
system and we put our calculations into perspective with the latest
experimental results. The calculated quadrupole strength distribution
reproduces the narrow 2+ resonance, while a second wider peak is found at about
3.9 MeV above the g.s. energy.
