Disentangling interstellar plasma screens with pulsar VLBI: Combining auto- and cross-correlations

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method combining interferometric visibilities and intensity cross-correlations to reconstruct pulsar scattering geometries, enabling analysis of complex interstellar plasma screens beyond traditional single-screen assumptions.

Contribution

The authors develop a new technique that reconstructs scattering geometries in complex environments by combining auto- and cross-correlations, extending pulsar scintillation analysis capabilities.

Findings

Successfully reconstructed the scattering geometry of PSR B0834+06.

Simulations show the method can distinguish multiple scattering screens.

Applicable to complex scattering environments where traditional methods fail.

Abstract

Pulsar scintillation allows a glimpse into small-scale plasma structures in the interstellar medium, if we can infer their properties from the scintillation pattern. With Very Long Baseline Interferometry and working in delay-delay rate space, where the contributions of pairs of images to the interference pattern become localized, the scattering geometry and distribution of scattered images on the sky can be determined if a single, highly-anisotropic scattering screen is responsible for the scintillation. However, many pulsars are subject to much more complex scattering environments where this method cannot be used. We present a novel technique to reconstruct the scattered flux of the pulsar and solve for the scattering geometry in these cases by combining interferometric visibilities with cross-correlations of single-station intensities. This takes advantage of the fact that, considering a single image pair in delay-delay rate space, the visibilities are sensitive to the sum of the image angular displacements, while the cross-correlated intensities are sensitive to the difference, so that their combination can be used to localize both images of the pair. We show that this technique is able to reconstruct the published scattering geometry of PSR B0834+06, then apply it to simulations of more complicated scattering systems, where we find that it can distinguish features from different scattering screens even when the presence of multiple screens is not obvious in the Fourier transform of the dynamic spectrum. This technique will allow us to both better understand the distribution of scattering within the interstellar medium and to apply current scintillometry techniques, such as modelling scintillation and constraining the location of pulsar emission, to sources for which a current lack of understanding of the scattering environment precludes the use of these techniques. (abridged)