White Dwarf Magnetic Fields

The discovery of very strong magnetic fields in compact galactic objects, namely white dwarf stars (see, for instance, the review of Garstang [1]) and neutron stars ([2] see also [3] and references therein) has led to substantial efforts to understand the electronic structure of atoms subjected to such fields. 

In 1995 a new magnetic white dwarf PG2329+267 was found with magnetic-field strength Beff = 1.58 - 0.08 MG. The observations were performed with the 1.2 m William Hershel Telescope at La Palma. The circular polarization in the H line is about 10%. Fig. 9 shows the structure of the circular polarization across H . The two displaced o components are evident. 

It is generally agreed that electron correlation, in our terrestrial environment, is important in calculating quantitative electron affinities in atoms However, it is also true that under very different environments (e.g. at the surface of neutron stars, or near white dwarfs), huge magnetic fields can qualitatively change chemistry. This is clear from the pioneering study of... 

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