Probing the Interstellar Medium using the Vela Pulsar

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

One tool for investigating turbulent interstellar material on small length-scales is to monitor changes over time in radio waves originating from pulsars. As pulsar signals propagate through the ionized interstellar medium (ISM), scattering, scintillation, and dispersion effects change the pulse shape, flux, and time of arrival. As the Earth and the source move relative to one another, the radio waves will pass through (and be affected by) different parcels of gas in the ISM. In particular, the flux, scattering time scale (τ) and dispersion measure (DM a measure of the electron column density), will all vary with time.
We present measurements of variations in the pulse flux, scattering timescale, and dispersion measure using observations of the Vela Pulsar (PSR B0833-45) at 327 MHz and 610 MHz. This particularly strong pulsar rotates once every 89.9 milliseconds, and lies in the Vela supernova remnant. The data were collected over a period of approximately 6 years via remote monitoring observations using the 85-foot telescope of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, WV. By investigating the dispersion measure, interstellar scintillation, and scattering properties of the pulsed radiation, we will be able to constrain the properties of the intervening interstellar medium. Our dispersion-measure observations show a clear continuation of the decrease in intervening electron density seen by Hamilton et al (1985), interpreted as a wedge of plasma exiting the line of sight. A structure-function analysis of the small-scale flux and dispersion variations is also presented, and compared with various interstellar models.

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