Understanding the fossil magnetic fields of Ap/Bp stars: Conclusions from a volume-limited survey (1712.02811v1)

Abstract: Various observational properties of Ap/Bp stars have been well-established such as the often-cited 10% incidence rate of strong, organized magnetic fields amongst all A- and B-type stars. However, these inferences have generally been drawn fromsurveys biased towards the strongest most easily detectable fields. A volume-limited spectropolarimetric survey of all intermediate-mass stars within 100 pc was initiated in 2007 in order to avoid the biases inherent in previous studies. This workyielded the magnetic properties of a large number of Ap/Bp stars in the sample; however, nearly half of the sample remained either unobserved or had relatively poor constraints on their field strengths and geometries. We have recently completed thissurvey using measurements obtained by ESPaDOnS and NARVAL. We discuss here some of the recent findings of this survey.