Scintillation Arcs: Probing Turbulence and Structure in the ISM

Abstract

Multi-path scattering through inhomogeneities in the interstellar medium causes many related effects. In this review, I concentrate on the phenomenon of scintillation arcs, which are parabolic patterns in the secondary spectrum caused by interference between different angular components of the scatter-broadened image of a pulsar. Scintillation arcs are now fairly well understood. The measured curvature of the arc, together with proper motion and distance information about the pulsar, can be used to determine the location of thin scattering screens along the line of sight to the object. Some recent work of this type is presented. The puzzle of substructure in the power distribution of scintillation arcs is poorly understood, however, and is commented on as an open puzzle. In particular, some inferred physical structures in the ISM are small scale (~ 1 AU) and over-dense with respect to the background medium. Finally, an application of scintillation arc studies to the correction of high-precision pulsar timing is presented.

Publisher

IOP Publishing

Publication Date

1-1-2006

Publication Title

Chinese Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics

Department

Physics and Astronomy

Document Type

Article

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1009-9271/6/S2/38

Language

English

Format

text

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