In this talk I present a number of Quantum Monte Carlo calculations of electromagnetic observables for A ≤ 10 nuclei, including magnetic moments, M1 and E2 transitions. In the calculations, wave functions are generated from nuclear Hamiltonians with two- and three-body realistic potentials. In addition to the Impulse Approximation contribution, the nuclear electromagnetic current operator accounts for two-body effects due to the coupling of external photons with pairs of interacting nucleons. The two-body operators have been derived from a chiral effective field theory with pions and nucleons and consist of contact-like as well as one- and two-pion exchange operators. When used in combination with realistic nuclear Hamiltonians, two-body effects are found to be sizable and not negligible in a careful interpretation of the experimental data.

Argonne Physics Division Seminar Schedule