Related papers: The nature and origin of magnetic fields in early-…
The presence of magnetic fields in O-type stars has been suspected for a long time. The discovery of such fields would explain a wide range of well documented enigmatic phenomena in massive stars, in particular cyclical wind variability,…
Cosmology, high-energy physics and astrophysics are converging on the study of large-scale magnetic fields. While the experimental evidence for the existence of large-scale magnetization in galaxies, clusters and superclusters is rather…
In this contribution I review some of the major work that have been undertaken in the last decade to study the magnetic fields in intermediate-mass pre-main sequence stars, with the goal of understanding the origin of the magnetic fields…
We report on the status of our spectropolarimetric observations of massive stars. During the last years, we have discovered magnetic fields in many objects of the upper main sequence, including Be stars, beta Cephei and Slowly Pulsating B…
Enormous progress has been made on observing stellar magnetism in stars from the main sequence through to compact objects. Recent data have thrown into sharper relief the vexed question of the origin of stellar magnetic fields, which…
Our recent discoveries of magnetic fields in a small number of Herbig Ae/Be (HAeBe) stars, the evolutionary progenitors of main sequence A/B stars, raise new questions about the origin of magnetic fields in the intermediate mass stars. The…
Magnetic fields play an important role at all stages of stellar evolution. In Sun-like stars, they are generated in the outer convective layers. Studying the large-scale magnetic fields of these stars enlightens our understanding of the…
Magnetic fields appear to be ubiquitous in astrophysical environments. Their existence in the intracluster medium is established through observations of synchrotron emission and Faraday rotation. On the other hand, the nature of magnetic…
Some main-sequence stars of spectral type A are observed to have a strong (300-30000 G), static, large-scale magnetic field, of a chiefly dipolar shape -- the `Ap stars' (for example Alioth, the fifth star in the Big Dipper). Following…
Blazar observations point toward the possible presence of magnetic fields over intergalactic scales of the order of up to $\sim1\,$Mpc, with strengths of at least $\sim10^{-16}\,$G. Understanding the origin of these large-scale magnetic…
A significant fraction of massive main-sequence stars show strong, large-scale magnetic fields. The origin of these fields, their lifetimes, and their role in shaping the characteristics and evolution of massive stars are currently not well…
Observations indicate that magnetic fields on neutron stars span at least the range $10^{8-15}$ G, corresponding to a range of magnetic fluxes similar to that found in white dwarfs and main sequence stars. The observational evidence is…
Magnetic fields are present in a wide variety of stars throughout the HR diagram and play a role at basically all evolutionary stages, from very-low-mass dwarfs to very massive stars, and from young star-forming molecular clouds and…
The magnetic fields we observe in galaxies today may have their origins in the very early universe. While a number of mechanisms have been proposed which lead to an appreciable field amplitude at early times, the subsequent evolution of the…
Ferrario & Wickramasinghe (2006) explored the hypothesis that the magnetic fields of neutron stars are of fossil origin. In this context, they predicted the field distribution of the progenitor OB stars, finding that 5 per cent of main…
There is ample evidence for strong magnetic fields in the envelopes of (Post-)Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars as well as supergiant stars. The origin and role of these fields are still unclear. This paper updates the current status of…
Theories on the origin of magnetic fields in massive stars remain poorly developed, because the properties of their magnetic field as function of stellar parameters could not yet be investigated. To investigate whether magnetic fields in…
The origin of large-scale magnetic fields, detected in some low-mass (dwarf and irregular) galaxies via polarised synchrotron emission and Faraday rotation, remained unexplained for a long time. We suggest that mean-field dynamo can be…
Magnetic fields constitute an energetic component of the interstellar medium in galaxies and hence can affect the formation of galactic structures. Sensitive resolved radio continuum observations together with statistical studies in galaxy…
Magnetic fields correlated on several kiloparsec scales are seen in spiral galaxies. Their origin could be due to the winding up of a primordial cosmological field or due to amplification of a small seed field by a turbulent galactic…