239 research outputs found
Three-dimensional tomography of the galactic and extragalactic magnetoionic medium with the SKA
The magneto-ionic structures of the interstellar medium of the Milky Way and the intergalactic medium are still poorly understood, especially at distances larger than a few kiloparsecs from the Sun. The three-dimensional (3D) structure of the Galactic magnetic field and electron density distribution may be probed through observations of radio pulsars, primarily owing to their compact nature, high velocities, and highly-polarized short-duration radio pulses. Phase 1 of the SKA, i.e. SKA1, will increase the known pulsar population by an order of magnitude, and the full SKA, i.e. SKA2, will discover pulsars in the most distant regions of our Galaxy. SKA1-VLBI will produce model-independent distances to a large number of pulsars, and wide-band polarization observations by SKA1-LOW and SKA1-MID will yield high precision dispersion measure, scattering measure, and rotation measure estimates along thousands of lines of sight. When combined, these observations will enable detailed tomography of the large-scale magneto-ionic structure of both the Galactic disk and the Galactic halo. Turbulence in the interstellar medium can be studied through the variations of these observables and the dynamic spectra of pulsar flux densities. SKA1-LOW and SKA1-MID will monitor interstellar weather and produce sensitive dynamic and secondary spectra of pulsar scintillation, which can be used to make speckle images of the ISM, study turbulence on scales between ~ 108 and 1013 m, and probe pulsar emission regions on scales down to ~10 km. In addition, extragalactic pulsars or fast radio bursts to be discovered by SKA1 and SKA2 can be used to probe the electron density distribution and magnetic fields in the intergalactic medium beyond the Milky Way
Long Term Variability of a Black Widow's Eclipses -- A Decade of PSR J20510827
In this paper we report on years of observations of PSR
J20510827, at radio frequencies in the range 110--4032 MHz. We investigate
the eclipse phenomena of this black widow pulsar using model fits of increased
dispersion and scattering of the pulsed radio emission as it traverses the
eclipse medium. These model fits reveal variability in dispersion features on
timescales as short as the orbital period, and previously unknown trends on
timescales of months--years. No clear patterns are found between the
low-frequency eclipse widths, orbital period variations and trends in the
intra-binary material density. Using polarisation calibrated observations we
present the first available limits on the strength of magnetic fields within
the eclipse region of this system; the average line of sight field is
constrained to be G G, while for the
case of a field directed near-perpendicular to the line of sight we find
G. Depolarisation of the linearly polarised pulses
during the eclipse is detected and attributed to rapid rotation measure
fluctuations of rad m along, or across,
the line of sights averaged over during a sub-integration. The results are
considered in the context of eclipse mechanisms, and we find scattering and/or
cyclotron absorption provide the most promising explanation, while dispersion
smearing is conclusively ruled out. Finally, we estimate the mass loss rate
from the companion to be yr,
suggesting that the companion will not be fully evaporated on any reasonable
timescale
The Low-Frequency Radio Eclipses of the Black Widow Pulsar J1810+1744
We have observed and analysed the eclipses of the black widow pulsar
J1810+1744 at low radio frequencies. Using LOw-Frequency ARray (LOFAR) and
Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope observations between 2011--2015 we have
measured variations in flux density, dispersion measure and scattering around
eclipses. High-time-resolution, simultaneous beamformed and interferometric
imaging LOFAR observations show concurrent disappearance of pulsations and
total flux from the source during the eclipses, with a upper limit of
36 mJy ( of the pulsar's averaged out-of-eclipse flux density). The
dispersion measure variations are highly asymmetric, suggesting a tail of
material swept back due to orbital motion. The egress deviations are variable
on timescales shorter than the 3.6 hr orbital period and are indicative of a
clumpy medium. Additional pulse broadening detected during egress is typically
of the pulsar's spin period, showing no evidence of scattering the
pulses beyond detectability in the beamformed data. The eclipses, lasting
of the orbit at 149 MHz, are shown to be frequency-dependent with
total duration scaling as . The results are
discussed in the context of the physical parameters of the system, and an
examination of eclipse mechanisms reveals cyclotron-synchrotron absorption as
the most likely primary cause, although non-linear scattering mechanisms cannot
be quantitatively ruled out. The inferred mass loss rate is a similar
order-of-magnitude to the mean rate required to fully evaporate the companion
in a Hubble time.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure
Scattering analysis of LOFAR pulsar observations
We measure the effects of interstellar scattering on average pulse profiles
from 13 radio pulsars with simple pulse shapes. We use data from the LOFAR High
Band Antennas, at frequencies between 110 and 190~MHz. We apply a forward
fitting technique, and simultaneously determine the intrinsic pulse shape,
assuming single Gaussian component profiles. We find that the constant ,
associated with scattering by a single thin screen, has a power-law dependence
on frequency , with indices ranging from to , despite simplest theoretical models predicting
or . Modelling the screen as an isotropic or extremely anisotropic
scatterer, we find anisotropic scattering fits lead to larger power-law
indices, often in better agreement with theoretically expected values. We
compare the scattering models based on the inferred, frequency dependent
parameters of the intrinsic pulse, and the resulting correction to the
dispersion measure (DM). We highlight the cases in which fits of extreme
anisotropic scattering are appealing, while stressing that the data do not
strictly favour either model for any of the 13 pulsars. The pulsars show
anomalous scattering properties that are consistent with finite scattering
screens and/or anisotropy, but these data alone do not provide the means for an
unambiguous characterization of the screens. We revisit the empirical
versus DM relation and consider how our results support a frequency dependence
of . Very long baseline interferometry, and observations of the
scattering and scintillation properties of these sources at higher frequencies,
will provide further evidence.Comment: 24 pages, 23 figures, supplementary appendi
LOFAR Deep Fields : Probing a broader population of polarized radio galaxies in ELAIS-N1
This paper is part of the 1st data release of the LoTSS Deep Fields. © 2020 The European Southern Observatory (ESO).We present deep polarimetric observations of the European Large Area ISO Survey-North 1 (ELAIS-N1) field using the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) at 114.9-177.4 MHz. The ELAIS-N1 field is part of the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey deep fields data release I. For six eight-hour observing epochs, we align the polarization angles and stack the 20"-resolution Stokes , -parameter data cubes. This produces a 16 deg image with 1 sensitivity of 26 Jy/beam in the central area. In this paper, we demonstrate the feasibility of the stacking technique, and we generate a catalog of polarized sources in ELAIS-N1 and their associated Faraday rotation measures (RMs). While in a single-epoch observation we detect three polarized sources, this number increases by a factor of about three when we consider the stacked data, with a total of ten sources. This yields a surface density of polarized sources of one per 1.6 deg. The Stokes images of three of the ten detected polarized sources have morphologies resembling those of FR I radio galaxies. This represents a greater fraction of this type of source than previously found, which suggests that more sensitive observations may help with their detection.Peer reviewe
- …