Scintillation arcs in low-frequency observations of the timing-array millisecond pulsar J0437-4715

Abstract

Low-frequency observations of pulsars provide a powerful means for probing the microstructure in the turbulent interstellar medium (ISM). Here we report on high-resolution dynamic spectral analysis of our observations of the timing-array millisecond pulsar J0437-4715 with the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), enabled by our recently commissioned tied-array beam processing pipeline for voltage data recorded from the high time resolution mode of the MWA. A secondary spectral analysis reveals faint parabolic arcs, akin to those seen in high-frequency observations of pulsars with the Green Bank and Arecibo telescopes. Data from Parkes observations at a higher frequency of 732 MHz reveal a similar parabolic feature, with a curvature that scales approximately as the square of the observing wavelength (${\lambda }^2$) to the MWA's frequency of 192 MHz. Our analysis suggests that scattering toward PSR J0437-4715 predominantly arises from a compact region about 115 pc from the Earth, which matches well with the expected location of the edge of the Local Bubble that envelopes the local Solar neighborhood. As well as demonstrating new and improved pulsar science capabilities of the MWA, our analysis underscores the potential of low-frequency pulsar observations for gaining valuable insights into the local ISM and for characterizing the ISM toward timing-array pulsars.

8 pages, 4 figues, 1 table, Accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (12)

• European Pulsar Timing Array Limits On An Isotropic Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background
• Gravitational waves from binary supermassive black holes missing in pulsar observations
• The NANOGrav Nine-year Data Set: Limits on the Isotropic Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background
• Dispersion Measure Variations and their Effect on Precision Pulsar Timing
• Extremely high precision VLBI astrometry of PSR J0437-4715 and implications for theories of gravity
• The High Time and Frequency Resolution Capabilities of the Murchison Widefield Array
• A Measurement Model for Precision Pulsar Timing
• Model-based asymptotically optimal dispersion measure correction for pulsar timing
• The Murchison Widefield Array Correlator
• Pulsar Timing Errors from Asynchronous Multi-Frequency Sampling of Dispersion Measure Variations
• The low-frequency characteristics of PSR J0437-4715 observed with the Murchison Widefield Array
• Millisecond Pulsar Scintillation Studies with LOFAR: Initial Results

Cited by in corpus (39)

• Precision orbital dynamics from interstellar scintillation arcs for PSR J0437-4715
• Electron Density Structure of the Local Galactic Disk
• The challenges of low-frequency radio polarimetry: lessons from the Murchison Widefield Array
• Low Frequency Observations of the Subpulse Drifter PSR J0034-0721 with the Murchison Widefield Array
• A Scintillation Arc Survey of 22 Pulsars with Low to Moderate Dispersion Measures
• Science with the Murchison Widefield Array: Phase I Results and Phase II Opportunities
• Measuring Interstellar Delays of PSR J0613-0200 over 7 years, using the Large European Array for Pulsars
• Probing the local interstellar medium with scintillometry of the bright pulsar B1133+16
• Pulsar scintillation studies with LOFAR. I. The census
• The $\theta$-$\theta$ Diagram: Transforming pulsar scintillation spectra to coordinates on highly anisotropic interstellar scattering screens
• Observations of Low-Frequency Radio Emission from Millisecond Pulsars and Multipath Propagation in the Interstellar Medium
• Revealing compact structures of interstellar plasma in the Galaxy with RadioAstron
• A Census of Southern Pulsars at 185 MHz
• The Southern-sky MWA Rapid Two-metre (SMART) pulsar survey -- I. Survey design and processing pipeline
• MWA Tied-Array Processing I: Calibration and Beamformation
• A search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) toward the Galactic Anticenter with the Murchison Widefield Array
• Discovery of a steep-spectrum low-luminosity pulsar with the Murchison Widefield Array
• Interstellar scintillations of PSR B1919+21: space-ground interferometry
• The Frequency Dependence of Scintillation Arc Thickness in Pulsar B1133+16
• Interstellar Scintillation observations for PSR B0355+54
• Jiamusi Pulsar Observations: II. Scintillations of 10 Pulsars
• Scintillation Arc from FRB 20220912A
• Hunting for radio emission from the intermittent pulsar J1107-5907 at low frequencies
• Interstellar scintillation and polarization of PSR B0656+14 in the Monogem Ring
• MWA tied-array processing III: Microsecond time resolution via a polyphase synthesis filter
• Analysis of the ionized interstellar medium and orbital dynamics of PSR~J1909-3744 using scintillation arcs
• A high time resolution study of the millisecond pulsar J2241-5236 at frequencies below 300 MHz
• Analysis of Multi-Hour Continuous Observations of Seven Millisecond Pulsars
• Detection of frequency-dependent dispersion measure toward the millisecond pulsar PSR J2241-5236 from contemporaneous wide-band observations
• High time resolution search for prompt radio emission from the long GRB 210419A with the Murchison Widefield Array
• The Galactic distribution of pulsar scattering and the $\tau -\mathrm{DM}$ relation
• Scattering model of scintillation arcs in pulsar secondary spectra
• A targeted search for repeating fast radio bursts with the MWA
• Effects of Coronal Mass Ejection on PSR J1022+1001 and Possible Mode Change of PSR J2145-0750 in the InPTA DR2
• BLINK: an End-To-End GPU High Time Resolution Imaging Pipeline for Fast Radio Burst Searches with the Murchison Widefield Array
• A Search for Low-frequency Radio Pulses from Long Gamma-ray Bursts with the Murchison Widefield Array
• Studying Magnetic Fields using Low-frequency Pulsar Observations
• Using low-frequency pulsar observations to study the 3-D structure of the Galactic magnetic field
• Imaging without visibilities: FAST-Effelsberg scintillometry of PSR B1508+55