Recovering Intrinsic Pulsar Profiles and Scattering Parameters with a CLEAN-Based Algorithm for High-Precision Timing

TL;DR

This paper introduces a CLEAN-based algorithm pipeline to accurately recover intrinsic pulsar profiles and scattering parameters, validated through simulated data, enhancing high-precision pulsar timing accuracy.

Contribution

The study demonstrates a novel pipeline utilizing a CLEAN-based algorithm for recovering pulsar profiles and scattering parameters, improving precision in pulsar timing analysis.

Findings

Effective recovery of intrinsic profiles from simulated data

Accurate estimation of scattering parameters and dispersion measures

Identification of limitations and potential improvements in the pipeline

Abstract

In high precision pulsar timing, the accurate recovery of intrinsic pulsar profiles and their associated scattering parameters is of paramount importance. In this paper, we present a comprehensive study focused on the retrieval of intrinsic pulsar profiles through the utilization of a CLEAN-based algorithm as described in Bhat et al. (2003). The primary objective of this study is to elucidate the capabilities of our pipeline in the context of recovering the intrinsic profiles and associated parameters, such as dispersion measure, frequency scaling index, scattering time, pulse broadening function, and time of arrival residuals. We use simulated profiles to rigorously test and validate the efficiency of our recovery pipeline. These simulated profiles encompass single and multi-component Gaussians, designed to emulate the diverse nature of pulsar profiles. By comparing the recovered profiles and parameters to their injected values, as derived from simulations, we provide a robust evaluation of the pipeline's performance along with its drawbacks and limitations.