EN
We analyze the possible occurrence of ferromagnetism in the Hubbard model, by means of an exact diagonalization study performed on 3- to 8-site chains with periodic boundary conditions. In the case of one hole in the half-filled configuration, we find that the Nagaoka state is reached only in the 3- and in the 4-site case. Ground states characterized by unsaturated ferromagnetism are found when the case of more than one hole is considered.