Looking into Pulsar Magnetospheres
arXiv:astro-ph/0007373 · doi:10.1023/A:1013139403705
Abstract
Diffractive and refractive magnetospheric scintillations may allow a direct testing of the plasma inside the light cylinder. Unusual electrodynamics of the strongly magnetized electron-positron plasma allow separation of the magnetospheric and interstellar scattering. The most distinctive feature of the magnetospheric scintillations is their independence on frequency. Diffractive scattering due to small scale inhomogeneities produce a scattering angle that may be as large as 0.1 radians, and a typical decorrelation time of seconds. Refractive scattering due to large scale inhomogeneities is also possible, with a typical angle of radians and a correlation time of the order of seconds. Some of the magnetospheric propagation effects may have already been observed.
4 pages. To appear in "Sources and Scintillations: Refraction and Scattering in Radio Astronomy", IAU Colloquium 182, Guiyang, China