Abstract
Thiessen1, v. Klüber2, and Kiepenheuer3 have recently achieved a very high accuracy in measuring the Zeeman effect of the Fraunhofer lines. Their results agree that, outside sunspots and other disturbed regions, the Zeeman effect is very small, corresponding to a few gauss or less. From this it is usually concluded that the sun's general magnetic field is less than a few gauss. This conclusion would be legitimate only if there were no turbulence in the photosphere.
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References
Thiessen, G., Ann. d'Astrophys., 9, 101 (1946); Z. Astrophys., 26, 16 (1949); Observatory, 69, 228 (1949).
v. Klüber, H., Observatory, 71, 9 (1951).
Kiepenheuer, K. A. (in the press).
Alfvén, H., Mon. Not. Roy. Astro. Soc., 107, 211 (1947).
Alfvén, H., “Cosmical Electrodynamics” (Oxf. Univ. Press, 1950).
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ALFVÉN, H. The Impossibility of Determining the Sun's General Magnetic Field by Zeeman Effect Measurements. Nature 168, 1036 (1951). https://doi.org/10.1038/1681036a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1681036a0
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