Interstellar Scintillation observations for PSR B0355+54

TL;DR

This study monitored PSR B0355+54 over three months at 2.25 GHz, detecting rare scintillation arcs and analyzing their properties, revealing temporal variations and suggesting complex scattering scenarios.

Contribution

First detection of scintillation arcs in PSR B0355+54 using a small telescope, with analysis of their temporal variability and implications for scattering structures.

Findings

Detected scintillation arcs with high S/N

Observed temporal variations in scintillation parameters

Indicated multiple scattering screens or structures

Abstract

In this paper, we report our investigation of pulsar scintillation phenomena by monitoring PSR B0355$+$54 at 2.25 GHz for three successive months using \emph{Kunming 40-m radio telescope}. We have measured the dynamic spectrum, the two-dimensional correlation function, and the secondary spectrum. In those observations with high signal-to-noise ratio ($S/N\ge100$), we have detected the scintillation arcs, which are rarely observable using such a small telescope. The sub-microsecond scale width of the scintillation arc indicates that the transverse scale of structures on scattering screen is as compact as AU size. Our monitoring has also shown that both the scintillation bandwidth, timescale, and arc curvature of PSR B0355$+$54 were varying temporally. The plausible explanation would need to invoke multiple-scattering-screen or multiple-scattering-structure scenario that different screens or ray paths dominate the scintillation process at different epochs.