Revisiting the structure function of PSR B0950+08 scintillations

Abstract

The observational structure function of the scintillations of the radio pulsar PSR B0950+08, was fitted, a decade ago, with a power law with index $1\pm 0.01$. This was interpreted as an {\em appreciable deviation} from the, commonly observed index of $5/3$, expected for Kolmogorov turbulence. In this paper it is suggested that the observations are consistent with a Kolmogorov turbulence and that the {\em apparent} deviation is due to a turbulent region with an effective depth which is {\em comparable} to the observed lateral scales on the plane of the sky, spanned by the pulsar beam. Alternatively, the fitted index of $1$ is consistent with an underlying compressive turbulence and an even {\it smaller} depth. In the first interpretation the depth is $(5.5\pm 1.8)\times 10^{8}cm$. In the second one, the depth is $\lesssim 4\times 10^{7}cm$. These estimates lend support for the existence of extremely thin, ionized scattering screens in the local interstellar cloud, that have been proposed a decade ago.

arXiv comment4 pages, 3 figures, under review in MNRAS

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Cited by in corpus (2)

• Dual-frequency single-pulse study of PSR B0950+08
• Evidence for large scale compressible turbulence in the ism of CSWA13, a star-Forming Lensed Galaxy at z = 1.87 with outflowing wind