Context. An extremely weak circularly polarized signature was recently discovered in spectral lines of the chemically peculiar Am star Sirius A. A weak surface magnetic field was proposed to account for the observed polarized signal, but the shape of the phaseaveraged signature, dominated by a prominent positive lobe, is not expected in the standard theory of the Zeeman effect. Aims. We aim at verifying the presence of weak circularly polarized signatures in two other bright Am stars, β UMa and θ Leo, and investigating the physical origin of Sirius-like polarized signals further. Methods. We present here a set of deep spectropolarimetric observations of β UMa and θ Leo, observed with the NARVAL spectropolarimeter. We analyzed all spectra with the least squares deconvolution multiline procedure. To improve the signal-to-noise ratio and detect extremely weak signatures in Stokes V profiles, we co-added all available spectra of each star (around 150 observations each time). Finally, we ran several tests to evaluate whether the detected signatures are consistent with the behavior expected from the Zeeman effect. Results. The line profiles of the two stars display circularly polarized signatures similar in shape and amplitude to the observations previously gathered for Sirius A. Our series of tests brings further evidence of a magnetic origin of the recorded signal. Conclusions. These new detections suggest that very weak magnetic fields may well be present in the photospheres of a significant fraction of intermediate-mass stars. The strongly asymmetric Zeeman signatures measured so far in Am stars (featuring a dominant single-sign lobe) are not expected in the standard theory of the Zeeman effect and may be linked to sharp vertical gradients in photospheric velocities and magnetic field strengths.

Context. Recent spectropolarimetric surveys of main-sequence intermediate-mass stars have exhibited a dichotomy in the distribution of the observed magnetic field between the kG dipoles of Ap/Bp stars and the sub-Gauss magnetism of Vega and Sirius. Aims. We would like to test whether this dichotomy is linked to the stability versus instability of large-scale magnetic configurations in differentially rotating radiative zones. Methods. We computed the axisymmetric magnetic field obtained from the evolution of a dipolar field threading a differentially rotating shell. A full parameter study including various density profiles and initial and boundary conditions was performed with a 2D numerical code. We then focused on the ratio between the toroidal and poloidal components of the magnetic field and discuss the stability of the configurations dominated by the toroidal component using local stability criteria and insights from recent 3D numerical simulations. Results. The numerical results and a simple model show that the ratio between the toroidal and the poloidal magnetic fields is highest after an Alfvén crossing time of the initial poloidal field. For high density contrasts, this ratio converges towards an asymptotic value that can thus be extrapolated to realistic stellar cases. We then consider the stability of the magnetic configurations to nonaxisymmetric perturbations and find that configurations dominated by the toroidal component are likely to be unstable if the shear strength is significantly higher than the poloidal Alfvén frequency. An expression for the critical poloidal field below which magnetic fields are likely to be unstable is found and is compared to the lower bound of Ap/Bp magnetic fields.