Scintillometry of Fast Radio Bursts: Resolution effects in two-screen models
arXiv:2505.04576 · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202554202
Abstract
Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) exhibit scintillation and scattering, often attributed to interactions with plasma screens in the Milky Way and the host galaxy. When these two screens appear "point-like" to each other, two scales of scintillation can be observed with sufficient frequency resolution. A screen perceives a second screen as extended or resolved when the angular size of the latter is smaller than the angular resolution of the former. We define the ratio of these two as the Resolution Power (RP). Previous observational studies have argued that, in the resolving regime, scintillations disappear, assuming that a screen resolving another screen is equivalent to a screen resolving an incoherent emission region. In this theoretical and simulation-based study of resolving effects in two-screen scenarios, we argue that resolving quenches only the relatively broad-scale scintillation and that this quenching is a gradual process. We present qualitative and quantitative predictions for dynamic spectra, spectral autocorrelation functions (ACF), and modulation indices in resolved and unresolved regimes of two-screen systems. We show that the spectral ACF of a two-screen system has a product term in addition to the sum of individual screen contributions, causing the total modulation index to rise to \sqrt(3) in the unresolved regime. To aid in discovering resolving systems, we also present observable trends in multi-frequency observations of a screen resolving another screen or incoherent emission. Additionally we introduce a new formula to estimate the distance between the FRB and the screen in its host galaxy. We also show that this formula, like previous ones in the literature, is only applicable to screens that are two-dimensional in the plane of the sky.
arXiv comment20 pages, 17 figures, 4 tables. Submitted to A&A, first review
References in corpus (50)
- A bright millisecond radio burst of extragalactic origin
- A New Electron Density Model for Estimation of Pulsar and FRB Distances
- The direct localization of a fast radio burst and its host
- The Host Galaxy and Redshift of the Repeating Fast Radio Burst FRB 121102
- Fast Radio Bursts: An Extragalactic Enigma
- The First CHIME/FRB Fast Radio Burst Catalog
- A repeating fast radio burst source localised to a nearby spiral galaxy
- A single fast radio burst localized to a massive galaxy at cosmological distance
- The Repeating Fast Radio Burst FRB 121102 as Seen on Milliarcsecond Angular Scales
- Dense magnetized plasma associated with a fast radio burst
- Locating the "missing" baryons with extragalactic dispersion measure estimates
- Supergiant Pulses from Extragalactic Neutron Stars
- The low density and magnetization of a massive galaxy halo exposed by a fast radio burst
- The Physics of Fast Radio Bursts
- 100 Microarcsecond Resolution VLBI Imaging of Anisotropic Interstellar Scattering towards Pulsar B0834+06
- Interpretation of parabolic arcs in pulsar secondary spectra
- Theory of Parabolic Arcs in Interstellar Scintillation Spectra
- FRB microstructure revealed by the real-time detection of FRB170827
- Magnetic field reversal in the turbulent environment around a repeating fast radio burst
- Temporal Smearing of Transient Radio Sources by the Intergalactic Medium
- Deflection of Pulsar Signal Reveals Compact Structures in the Galaxy
- A luminous fast radio burst that probes the Universe at redshift 1
- The Large Dispersion and Scattering of FRB 20190520B are Dominated by the Host Galaxy
- Modeling Fast Radio Burst Dispersion and Scattering Properties in the First CHIME/FRB Catalog
- Disentangling the Cosmic Web Towards FRB 190608
- Constraining Galaxy Haloes from the Dispersion and Scattering of Fast Radio Bursts and Pulsars
- A bright, high rotation-measure FRB that skewers the M33 halo
- On the origin of the scatter broadening of fast radio burst pulses and astrophysical implications
- A population analysis of pulse broadening in ASKAP Fast Radio Bursts
- Extreme Scattering Events Towards Two Young Pulsars
- Scattering of gravitational radiation: second order moments of the wave amplitude
- The Thousand-Pulsar-Array programme on MeerKAT -- V. Scattering analysis of single-component pulsars
- Double-lens Scintillometry: The variable scintillation of pulsar B1508+55
- Probing motion of fast radio burst sources by timing strongly lensed repeaters
- Regimes in astrophysical lensing: refractive optics, diffractive optics, and the Fresnel scale
- Scattering variability detected from the circumsource medium of FRB 20190520B
- Pulsar scintillation studies with LOFAR. I. The census
- The scattering of FRBs by the intergalactic medium: variations, strength and dependence on dispersion measures
- The - Diagram: Transforming pulsar scintillation spectra to coordinates on highly anisotropic interstellar scattering screens
- The NANOGrav 12.5-Year Data Set: Monitoring Interstellar Scattering Delays
- The Astrophysical Consequences of Intervening Galaxy Gas on Fast Radio Bursts
- Scintillation can explain the spectral structure of the bright radio burst from SGR 1935+2154
- Scintillation Arc from FRB 20220912A
- Pulsar Double-lensing Sheds Light on the Origin of Extreme Scattering Events
- Redshift estimates for fast radio bursts and implications on intergalactic magnetic fields
- Constraining the FRB mechanism from scintillation in the host galaxy
- Modelling Annual Scintillation Velocity Variations of FRB 20201124A
- A new limit on intergalactic magnetic fields on sub-kpc scales from fast radio bursts
- Refractive lensing of scintillating FRBs by sub-parsec cloudlets in the multi-phase CGM
- Associations Between Scattering Screens and Interstellar Medium Filaments