A highly sensitive search for magnetic fields in B, A and F stars^*

¹ Physics & Astronomy Department, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 3K7 Canada
² Department of Physics, Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, Ontario, K7K 7B4 Canada
³ Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, 14 avenue Édouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France
⁴ Physics and Astronomy Department, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4 Canada

Corresponding author: S. L. S. Shorlin, sshorlin@astro.uwo.ca

Received: 27 March 2002
Accepted: 20 June 2002

Abstract

Circular spectropolarimetric observations of 74 stars were obtained in an attempt to detect magnetic fields via the longitudinal Zeeman effect in their spectral lines. The sample observed includes 22 normal B, A and F stars, four emission-line B and A stars, 25 Am stars, 10 HgMn stars, two λ Boo stars and 11 magnetic Ap stars. Using the Least-Squares Deconvolution multi-line analysis approach (Donati et al. [CITE]), high precision Stokes I and V mean signatures were extracted from each spectrum. We find absolutely no evidence for magnetic fields in the normal, Am and HgMn stars, with upper limits on longitudinal field measurements usually considerably smaller than any previously obtained for these objects. We conclude that if any magnetic fields exist in the photospheres of these stars, these fields are not ordered as in the magnetic Ap stars, nor do they resemble the fields of active late-type stars. We also detect for the first time a field in the A2pSr star HD 108945 and make new precise measurements of longitudinal fields in five previously known magnetic Ap stars, but do not detect fields in five other stars classified as Ap SrCrEu. We also report new results for several binary systems, including a new for the rapidly rotating secondary of the Am-δ Del SB2 HD 110951.