453 research outputs found
Observations of the solar plasma using radio scattering and scintillation methods
Observations of the solar plasma using the interplanetary scintillation technique have been made at radial distances of 0.03 to 1.2 AU. The solar wind is found to be independent of ecliptic latitude and radial distance, except close to the sun where acceleration is observed. Plasma density irregularities on a scale near the proton gyro radius, which modulate the mean density by about 1 percent, are present throughout the observed range of radial distance
Fine Structure in Radio Sources at 81.5 MHz-III: The Survey
A survey of radio sources which exhibit interplanetary scintillations has been carried out with the Cambridge 18 000 m² array at 81.5 MHz. The methods of observation, and of determination of angular structure on a scale 0″.2 to 2″.0, are discussed and a catalogue lists the structure of ∼ 1500 4C sources between declinations −12° and +90°, roughly 60 per cent of which scintillate. An analysis of the results will be presented elsewhere
Fine Structure in Radio Sources at 81.5 MHz-III: The Survey
A survey of radio sources which exhibit interplanetary scintillations has been carried out with the Cambridge 18 000 m² array at 81.5 MHz. The methods of observation, and of determination of angular structure on a scale 0″.2 to 2″.0, are discussed and a catalogue lists the structure of ∼ 1500 4C sources between declinations −12° and +90°, roughly 60 per cent of which scintillate. An analysis of the results will be presented elsewhere
The spectrum of small-scale density fluctuations in the solar wind
Interplanetary scintillation observations at frequencies between 74 and 1400 MHz and solar elongations in the range 10–90° are combined to determine the form of the wavenumber spectrum of electron density fluctuations in the range 10⁻³ < k < 10⁻¹/km (where k = 2π/λ). The data are best explained by a spectrum in which there is a genuine scale-length; they are not consistent with a simple power-law spectrum. This suggests that turbulence may be less important than some kind of plasma instability in generating small-scale density fluctuations. The relevance of these conclusions to the use of IPS for determining radio source structure is discussed
Modeling of Interstellar Scintillation Arcs from Pulsar B1133+16
The parabolic arc phenomenon visible in the Fourier analysis of the
scintillation spectra of pulsars provides a new method of investigating the
small scale structure in the ionized interstellar medium (ISM). We report
archival observations of the pulsar B1133+16 showing both forward and reverse
parabolic arcs sampled over 14 months. These features can be understood as the
mutual interference between an assembly of discrete features in the scattered
brightness distribution. By model-fitting to the observed arcs at one epoch we
obtain a ``snap-shot'' estimate of the scattered brightness, which we show to
be highly anisotropic (axial ratio >10:1), to be centered significantly off
axis and to have a small number of discrete maxima, which are coarser the
speckle expected from a Kolmogorov spectrum of interstellar plasma density. The
results suggest the effects of highly localized discrete scattering regions
which subtend 0.1-1 mas, but can scatter (or refract) the radiation by angles
that are five or more times larger.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Astrophysical Journa
Theory of Parabolic Arcs in Interstellar Scintillation Spectra
Our theory relates the secondary spectrum, the 2D power spectrum of the radio
dynamic spectrum, to the scattered pulsar image in a thin scattering screen
geometry. Recently discovered parabolic arcs in secondary spectra are generic
features for media that scatter radiation at angles much larger than the rms
scattering angle. Each point in the secondary spectrum maps particular values
of differential arrival-time delay and fringe rate (or differential Doppler
frequency) between pairs of components in the scattered image. Arcs correspond
to a parabolic relation between these quantities through their common
dependence on the angle of arrival of scattered components. Arcs appear even
without consideration of the dispersive nature of the plasma. Arcs are more
prominent in media with negligible inner scale and with shallow wavenumber
spectra, such as the Kolmogorov spectrum, and when the scattered image is
elongated along the velocity direction. The arc phenomenon can be used,
therefore, to constrain the inner scale and the anisotropy of scattering
irregularities for directions to nearby pulsars. Arcs are truncated by finite
source size and thus provide sub micro arc sec resolution for probing emission
regions in pulsars and compact active galactic nuclei. Multiple arcs sometimes
seen signify two or more discrete scattering screens along the propagation
path, and small arclets oriented oppositely to the main arc persisting for long
durations indicate the occurrence of long-term multiple images from the
scattering screen.Comment: 22 pages, 11 figures, submitted to the Astrophysical Journa
Electric field representation of pulsar intensity spectra
Pulsar dynamic spectra exhibit high visibility fringes arising from
interference between scattered radio waves. These fringes may be random or
highly ordered patterns, depending on the nature of the scattering or
refraction. Here we consider the possibility of decomposing pulsar dynamic
spectra -- which are intensity measurements -- into their constituent scattered
waves, i.e. electric field components. We describe an iterative method of
achieving this decomposition and show how the algorithm performs on data from
the pulsar B0834+06. The match between model and observations is good, although
not formally acceptable as a representation of the data. Scattered wave
components derived in this way are immediately useful for qualitative insights
into the scattering geometry. With some further development this approach can
be put to a variety of uses, including: imaging the scattering and refracting
structures in the interstellar medium; interstellar interferometric imaging of
pulsars at very high angular resolution; and mitigating pulse arrival time
fluctuations due to interstellar scattering.Comment: 7 Pages, 2 Figures, revised version, accepted by MNRA
Selection of radio pulsar candidates using artificial neural networks
Radio pulsar surveys are producing many more pulsar candidates than can be
inspected by human experts in a practical length of time. Here we present a
technique to automatically identify credible pulsar candidates from pulsar
surveys using an artificial neural network. The technique has been applied to
candidates from a recent re-analysis of the Parkes multi-beam pulsar survey
resulting in the discovery of a previously unidentified pulsar.Comment: Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical
Society. 9 pages, 7 figures, and 1 tabl
Simultaneous Absolute Timing of the Crab Pulsar at Radio and Optical Wavelengths
The Crab pulsar emits across a large part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Determining the time delay between the emission at different wavelengths will
allow to better constrain the site and mechanism of the emission. We have
simultaneously observed the Crab Pulsar in the optical with S-Cam, an
instrument based on Superconducting Tunneling Junctions (STJs) with s time
resolution and at 2 GHz using the Nan\c{c}ay radio telescope with an instrument
doing coherent dedispersion and able to record giant pulses data. We have
studied the delay between the radio and optical pulse using simultaneously
obtained data therefore reducing possible uncertainties present in previous
observations. We determined the arrival times of the (mean) optical and radio
pulse and compared them using the tempo2 software package. We present the most
accurate value for the optical-radio lag of 255 21 s and suggest the
likelihood of a spectral dependence to the excess optical emission asociated
with giant radio pulses.Comment: 8 pages; accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic
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