What is the origin of magnetism in intermediate-mass and high-mass stars?
Some main sequence A, B and O stars host strong, globally-ordered surface magnetic fields. The physical impact of these fields is clear: atmospheric structure, photospheric chemical abundances, mass loss, rotation, and ultimately stellar evolution are all modified, to various extents, due to the interaction of the magnetic field with the stellar plasma. Furthermore, because the ultimate descendants of stars in this mass range are both white dwarfs and neutron stars, their magnetic fields may provide significant clues toward understanding the magnetic characteristics of stellar remnants. Remarkably, the origin of magnetism in intermediate-mass and high-mass stars remains a total mystery. In order to trace the presence of these fields back to the earliest observable evolutionary stages, we have undertaken an extensive search for magnetic fields in the Herbig Ae/Be (HAeBe) stars, the pre-main sequence progenitors of the main sequence intermediate-mass stars. In this talk, I will review th
