Microscopic Approach to the Monopole and Quadrupole Giant Resonances

We present a microscopic approach to the monopole and quadrupole isoscalar giant resonances based on appropriate sum rules. The energies of both modes contain the same model-independent contribution ($\sqrt{2}\hslash \omega$) and a contribution involving antisymmetrization effects and the nuclear potential. Several potentials are considered and the results of many other approaches are derived in a simple and compact way.