Modelling annual and orbital variations in the scintillation of the relativistic binary PSR J1141$-$6545

Abstract

We have observed the relativistic binary pulsar PSR J1141$-$6545 over a period of $\sim$6 years using the Parkes 64 m radio telescope, with a focus on modelling the diffractive intensity scintillations to improve the accuracy of the astrometric timing model. The long-term scintillation, which shows orbital and annual variations, allows us to measure parameters that are difficult to measure with pulsar timing alone. These include: the orbital inclination $i$; the longitude of the ascending node $\Omega$; and the pulsar system transverse velocity. We use the annual variations to resolve the previous ambiguity in the sense of the inclination angle. Using the correct sense, and a prior probability distribution given by a constraint from pulsar timing ($i=73\pm 3^{\circ }$), we find $\Omega =24.8\pm 1.8^{\circ }$ and we estimate the pulsar distance to be $D=10_{-3}^{+4}$ kpc. This then gives us an estimate of this pulsar's proper motion of ${\mu }_{\alpha }\cos \delta =2.9\pm 1.0$ mas yr${}^{-1}$ in right ascension and ${\mu }_{\delta }=1.8\pm 0.6$ mas yr${}^{-1}$ in declination. Finally, we obtain measurements of the spatial structure of the interstellar electron density fluctuations, including: the spatial scale and anisotropy of the diffraction pattern; the distribution of scattering material along the line of sight; and spatial variation in the strength of turbulence from epoch to epoch. We find that the scattering is dominated by a thin screen at a distance of $(0.724\pm 0.008)D$, with an anisotropy axial ratio $A_{\mathrm{r}}=2.14\pm 0.11$.

17 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (8)

• A New Electron Density Model for Estimation of Pulsar and FRB Distances
• PSRCHIVE and PSRFITS An Open Approach to Radio Pulsar Data Storage and Analysis
• On Pulsar Distance Measurements and their Uncertainties
• Gravitational-radiation losses from the pulsar-white-dwarf binary PSR J1141-6545
• New tests of local Lorentz invariance of gravity with small-eccentricity binary pulsars
• Interstellar Scintillation of the Double Pulsar J0737$-$3039
• Extreme Scattering Events Towards Two Young Pulsars
• A characteristic observable signature of preferred frame effects in relativistic binary pulsars

Cited by in corpus (33)

• The CHIME Pulsar Project: System Overview
• The Parkes pulsar timing array second data release: Timing analysis
• The UTMOST pulsar timing programme II: Timing noise across the pulsar population
• Lense-Thirring frame dragging induced by a fast-rotating white dwarf in a binary pulsar system
• Precision orbital dynamics from interstellar scintillation arcs for PSR J0437-4715
• The Relativistic Binary Programme on MeerKAT: Science objectives and first results
• A revisit of PSR J1909$-$3744 with 15-year high-precision timing
• Modelling annual scintillation arc variations in PSR J1643-1224 using the Large European Array for Pulsars
• Measuring Interstellar Delays of PSR J0613-0200 over 7 years, using the Large European Array for Pulsars
• Pulsar scintillation studies with LOFAR. I. The census
• The Thousand-Pulsar-Array programme on MeerKAT -- X. Scintillation arcs of 107 pulsars
• Flux density variability of 286 radio pulsars from a decade of monitoring
• Discovery and modelling of broad-scale plasma lensing in black-widow pulsar J2051$-$0827
• The NANOGrav 12.5-Year Data Set: Monitoring Interstellar Scattering Delays
• Long-term scintillation studies of EPTA pulsars. I. Observations and basic results
• Status Report on Global Pulsar-Timing-Array Efforts to Detect Gravitational Waves
• Variable Scintillation Arcs of Millisecond Pulsars observed with the Large European Array for Pulsars
• Scintillation Arc from FRB 20220912A
• Interstellar scintillation and polarization of PSR B0656+14 in the Monogem Ring
• PSR~J1910$-$5959A: A rare gravitational laboratory for testing white dwarf models
• Mass measurements and 3D orbital geometry of PSR J1933$-$6211
• Orbital dynamics and extreme scattering event properties from long-term scintillation observations of PSR J1603-7202
• Determining electron column density fluctuations in a dominant scattering region using pulsar scintillation
• Analysis of the ionized interstellar medium and orbital dynamics of PSR~J1909-3744 using scintillation arcs
• On Detecting Interstellar Scintillation in Narrowband Radio SETI
• Galactic Interstellar Scintillation Observed from Four Globular Cluster Pulsars by FAST
• Analysis of Multi-Hour Continuous Observations of Seven Millisecond Pulsars
• Effects of proper motion of neutron stars on continuous gravitational-wave searches
• H-FISTA: A hierarchical algorithm for phase retrieval with application to pulsar dynamic spectra
• Associations Between Scattering Screens and Interstellar Medium Filaments
• Pulsar scintillation studies with LOFAR III. Annual variations in PSR~J0814$+$7429
• Imaging without visibilities: FAST-Effelsberg scintillometry of PSR B1508+55
• Interstellar Interferometry: Precise Curvature Measurement from Pulsar Secondary Spectra