Magnetic fields at the surfaces of stars

Summary Magnetic fields have now been detected in stars in several parts of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. Roughly dipolar fields ranging in strength between 3× 10² and 3×10⁴ G are found in many chemically peculiar A and B main sequence stars. Dipolar fields are also found in some 2–3% of white dwarfs, but with strengths between 1×10⁶ and 5×10⁸ G. In both these types of stars, the observed fields vary as the underlying star turns, but do not change in a secular manner. In solartype stars, structurally complex fields of a few kG are found with filling factors of the order of 0.1 to 0.8. Further indirect evidence of fields in cool main sequence stars is provided by detection of visible and ultraviolet line emission (chromospheric activity), x radiation (coronal matter), and giant starspots. In this review, we survey the observations of stellar magnetism in all these types of stars, as well as efforts to model the observed magnetic fields and associated photospheric peculiarities and activity.This article was processed by the author using the Springer-Verlag T_EX AAR macro package 1991.