1,004 research outputs found
Theory and Simulations of Refractive Substructure in Resolved Scatter-Broadened Images
At radio wavelengths, scattering in the interstellar medium distorts the
appearance of astronomical sources. Averaged over a scattering ensemble, the
result is a blurred image of the source. However, Narayan & Goodman (1989) and
Goodman & Narayan (1989) showed that for an incomplete average, scattering
introduces refractive substructure in the image of a point source that is both
persistent and wideband. We show that this substructure is quenched but not
smoothed by an extended source. As a result, when the scatter-broadening is
comparable to or exceeds the unscattered source size, the scattering can
introduce spurious compact features into images. In addition, we derive
efficient strategies to numerically compute realistic scattered images, and we
present characteristic examples from simulations. Our results show that
refractive substructure is an important consideration for ongoing missions at
the highest angular resolutions, and we discuss specific implications for
RadioAstron and the Event Horizon Telescope.Comment: Equation numbering in appendix now matches published version. Two
minor typos correcte
Size of the Vela Pulsar's Emission Region at 18 cm Wavelength
We present measurements of the linear diameter of the emission region of the
Vela pulsar at observing wavelength lambda=18 cm. We infer the diameter as a
function of pulse phase from the distribution of visibility on the
Mopra-Tidbinbilla baseline. As we demonstrate, in the presence of strong
scintillation, finite size of the emission region produces a characteristic
W-shaped signature in the projection of the visibility distribution onto the
real axis. This modification involves heightened probability density near the
mean amplitude, decreased probability to either side, and a return to the
zero-size distribution beyond. We observe this signature with high statistical
significance, as compared with the best-fitting zero-size model, in many
regions of pulse phase. We find that the equivalent full width at half maximum
of the pulsar's emission region decreases from more than 400 km early in the
pulse to near zero at the peak of the pulse, and then increases again to
approximately 800 km near the trailing edge. We discuss possible systematic
effects, and compare our work with previous results
Optimal Correlation Estimators for Quantized Signals
Using a maximum-likelihood criterion, we derive optimal correlation
strategies for signals with and without digitization. We assume that the
signals are drawn from zero-mean Gaussian distributions, as is expected in
radio-astronomical applications, and we present correlation estimators both
with and without a priori knowledge of the signal variances. We demonstrate
that traditional estimators of correlation, which rely on averaging products,
exhibit large and paradoxical noise when the correlation is strong. However, we
also show that these estimators are fully optimal in the limit of vanishing
correlation. We calculate the bias and noise in each of these estimators and
discuss their suitability for implementation in modern digital correlators.Comment: 8 Pages, 3 Figures, Submitted to Ap
Ultra-High Resolution Intensity Statistics of a Scintillating Source
We derive the distribution of flux density of a compact source exhibiting
strong diffractive scintillation. Our treatment accounts for arbitrary spectral
averaging, spatially-extended source emission, and the possibility of intrinsic
variability within the averaging time, as is typical for pulsars. We also
derive the modulation index and present a technique for estimating the
self-noise of the distribution, which can be used to identify amplitude
variations on timescales shorter than the spectral accumulation time. Our
results enable a for direct comparison with ultra-high resolution observations
of pulsars, particularly single-pulse studies with Nyquist-limited resolution,
and can be used to identify the spatial emission structure of individual pulses
at a small fraction of the diffractive scale.Comment: 14 Pages, 4 Figures, accepted for publication in Ap
The history of Sutter\u27s Fort, 1839-1931
Of all the stories and articles written about Captain J.A. Sutter in recent years, not one of them has adequately covered the history of his famous Fort. To the layman the fort itself may seem unimportant, but when we stop to consider that it was an outpost of civilization penetrating the wilderness of Central California, offering shelter to those who pioneered before us; we must confess that its existence was necessary to protect and usher into full City-hood, the infant Sacramento, then known as New Helvetia
Effects of Intermittent Emission: Noise Inventory for Scintillating Pulsar B0834+06
We compare signal and noise for observations of the scintillating pulsar
B0834+06, using very-long baseline interferometry and a single-dish
spectrometer. Comparisons between instruments and with models suggest that
amplitude variations of the pulsar strongly affect the amount and distribution
of self-noise. We show that noise follows a quadratic polynomial with flux
density, in spectral observations. Constant coefficients, indicative of
background noise, agree well with expectation; whereas second-order
coefficients, indicative of self-noise, are about 3 times values expected for a
pulsar with constant on-pulse flux density. We show that variations in flux
density during the 10-sec integration account for the discrepancy. In the
secondary spectrum, about 97% of spectral power lies within the pulsar's
typical scintillation bandwidth and timescale; an extended scintillation arc
contains about 3%. For a pulsar with constant on-pulse flux density, noise in
the dynamic spectrum will appear as a uniformly-distributed background in the
secondary spectrum. We find that this uniform noise background contains 95% of
noise in the dynamic spectrum for interferometric observations; but only 35% of
noise in the dynamic spectrum for single-dish observations. Receiver and sky
dominate noise for our interferometric observations, whereas self-noise
dominates for single-dish. We suggest that intermittent emission by the pulsar,
on timescales < 300 microseconds, concentrates self-noise near the origin in
the secondary spectrum, by correlating noise over the dynamic spectrum. We
suggest that intermittency sets fundamental limits on pulsar astrometry or
timing. Accounting of noise may provide means for detection of intermittent
sources, when effects of propagation are unknown or impractical to invert.Comment: 38 pages, 10 figure
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