Magnetic fields in A stars besides Ap stars

Abstract

I review ongoing efforts to understand the incidence of magnetism in intermediate-mass stars that are different from the magnetic Ap stars. This includes the search for magnetic fields in chemically peculiar stars of the Am and HgMn types as well as in normal A and late-B stars. I discuss different techniques for detection of weak stellar magnetic fields and present a critical evaluation of the recent magnetic detections in non-Ap stars. Special attention is given to the magnetic status of HgMn stars and to the discovery of weak polarization signatures in Sirius and Vega.