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Observations of pulsar scintillation are among the few astrophysical probes of very small-scale (≲ au) phenomena in the interstellar medium (ISM). In particular, characterization of scintillation arcs, including their curvature and intensity distributions, can be related to interstellar turbulence and potentially overpressurized plasma in local ISM inhomogeneities, such as supernova remnants, H ii regions, and bow shocks. Here we present a survey of eight pulsars conducted at the Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), revealing a diverse range of scintillation arc characteristics at high sensitivity. These observations reveal more arcs than measured previously for our sample. At least nine arcs are observed toward B1929+10 at screen distances spanning $\sim 90~{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of the pulsar’s 361 pc path length to the observer. Four arcs are observed toward B0355+54, with one arc yielding a screen distance as close as ∼105 au (<1 pc) from either the pulsar or the observer. Several pulsars show highly truncated, low-curvature arcs that may be attributable to scattering near the pulsar. The scattering screen constraints are synthesized with continuum maps of the local ISM and other well-characterized pulsar scintillation arcs, yielding a three-dimensional view of the scattering media in context.

 

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-time-scale radio transients, the origins of which are predominantly extragalactic and likely involve highly magnetized compact objects. FRBs undergo multipath propagation, or scattering, from electron density fluctuations on sub-parsec scales in ionized gas along the line of sight. Scattering observations have located plasma structures within FRB host galaxies, probed Galactic and extragalactic turbulence, and constrained FRB redshifts. Scattering also inhibits FRB detection and biases the observed FRB population. We report the detection of scattering times from the repeating FRB 20190520B that vary by up to a factor of 2 or more on minutes to days-long time-scales. In one notable case, the scattering time varied from 7.9 ± 0.4 ms to less than 3.1 ms ($95{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ confidence) over 2.9 min at 1.45 GHz. The scattering times appear to be uncorrelated between bursts or with dispersion and rotation measure variations. Scattering variations are attributable to dynamic, inhomogeneous plasma in the circumsource medium, and analogous variations have been observed from the Crab pulsar. Under such circumstances, the frequency dependence of scattering can deviate from the typical power law used to measure scattering. Similar variations may therefore be detectable from other FRBs, even those with inconspicuous scattering, providing a unique probe of small-scale processes within FRB environments.

 

Radio wave scattering can cause severe reductions in detection sensitivity for surveys of Galactic and extragalactic fast (∼ms duration) transients. While Galactic sources like pulsars undergo scattering in the Milky Way interstellar medium (ISM), extragalactic fast radio bursts (FRBs) can also experience scattering in their host galaxies and other galaxies intervening in their lines of sight. We assess Galactic and extragalactic scattering horizons for fast radio transients using a combination of NE2001 to model the dispersion measure and scattering time (τ) contributed by the Galactic disk, and independently constructed electron density models for the Galactic halo and other galaxies’ ISMs and halos that account for different galaxy morphologies, masses, densities, and strengths of turbulence. For source redshifts 0.5 ≤z_s≤ 1, an all-sky, isotropic FRB population has simulated values ofτ(1 GHz) ranging from ∼1μs to ∼2 ms (90% confidence, observer frame) that are dominated by host galaxies, althoughτcan be ≫2 ms at low Galactic latitudes. A population atz_s= 5 has 0.01 ≲τ≲ 300 ms at 1 GHz (90% confidence), dominated by intervening galaxies. About 20% of these high-redshift FRBs are predicted to haveτ> 5 ms at 1 GHz (observer frame), and ≳40% of FRBs betweenz_s∼ 0.5–5 haveτ≳ 1 ms forν≤ 800 MHz. Our scattering predictions may be conservative if scattering from circumsource environments is significant, which is possible under specific conditions. The percentage of FRBs selected against from scattering could also be substantially larger than we predict if circumgalactic turbulence causes more small-scale (≪1 au) density fluctuations than observed from nearby halos.

 

A sample of 14 FRBs with measured redshifts and scattering times is used to assess contributions to dispersion and scattering from the intergalactic medium (IGM), galaxy halos, and the disks of host galaxies. The IGM and galaxy halos contribute significantly to dispersion measures (DMs) but evidently not to scattering, which is then dominated by host galaxies. This enables the usage of scattering times for estimating DM contributions from host galaxies and also for a combined scattering–dispersion redshift estimator. Redshift estimation is calibrated using the scattering of Galactic pulsars after taking into account different scattering geometries for Galactic and intergalactic lines of sight. The DM-only estimator has a bias of ∼0.1 and rms error of ∼0.15 in the redshift estimate for an assumed ad hoc value of 50 pc cm⁻³for the host galaxy’s DM contribution. The combined redshift estimator shows less bias by a factor of 4 to 10 and a 20%–40% smaller rms error. We find that values for the baryonic fraction of the ionized IGMf_igm≃ 0.85 ± 0.05 optimize redshift estimation using dispersion and scattering. Our study suggests that 2 of the 14 candidate galaxy associations (FRB 20190523A and FRB 20190611B) should be reconsidered.

 

The millisecond pulsar J1713+0747 underwent a sudden and significant pulse shape change between 2021 April 16 and 17 (MJDs 59320 and 59321). Subsequently, the pulse shape gradually recovered over the course of several months. We report the results of continued multifrequency radio observations of the pulsar made using the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment and the 100 m Green Bank Telescope in a 3 yr period encompassing the shape change event, between 2020 February and 2023 February. As of 2023 February, the pulse shape had returned to a state similar to that seen before the event, but with measurable changes remaining. The amplitude of the shape change and the accompanying time-of-arrival residuals display a strong nonmonotonic dependence on radio frequency, demonstrating that the event is neither a glitch (the effects of which should be independent of radio frequency,ν) nor a change in dispersion measure alone (which would produce a delay proportional toν⁻²). However, it does bear some resemblance to the two previous “chromatic timing events” observed in J1713+0747, as well as to a similar event observed in PSR J1643−1224 in 2015.

 

We analyze the slow periodicities identified in burst sequences from FRB 121102 and FRB 180916 with periods of about 16 and 160 days, respectively, while also addressing the absence of any fast periodicity that might be associated with the spin of an underlying compact object. Both phenomena can be accounted for by a young, highly magnetized, precessing neutron star that emits beamed radiation with significant imposed phase jitter. Sporadic narrow-beam emission into an overall wide solid angle can account for the necessary phase jitter, but the slow periodicities with 25%–55% duty cycles constrain beam traversals to be significantly smaller. Instead, phase jitter may result from variable emission altitudes that yield large retardation and aberration delays. A detailed arrival time analysis for triaxial precession includes wobble of the radio beam and the likely larger, cyclical torque resulting from the changes in the spin–magnetic moment angle. These effects will confound identification of the fast periodicity in sparse data sets longer than about a quarter of a precession cycle unless fitted for and removed as with orbital fitting. Stochastic spin noise, likely to be much larger than in radio pulsars, may hinder detection of any fast periodicity in data spans longer than a few days. These decoherence effects will dissipate as sources of fast radio bursts age, so they may evolve into objects with properties similar to Galactic magnetars.

 

Abstract Stellar bow shocks are observed in a variety of interstellar environments and shaped by the conditions of gas in the interstellar medium (ISM). In situ measurements of turbulent density fluctuations near stellar bow shocks are only achievable with a few observational probes, including H α -emitting bow shocks and the Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM). In this paper, we examine density variations around the Guitar Nebula, an H α bow shock associated with PSR B2224+65, in tandem with density variations probed by VIM near the boundary of the solar wind and ISM. High-resolution Hubble Space Telescope observations of the Guitar Nebula taken between 1994 and 2006 trace density variations over scales from hundreds to thousands of au, while VIM density measurements made with the Voyager 1 Plasma Wave System constrain variations from thousands of meters to tens of au. The power spectrum of density fluctuations constrains the amplitude of the turbulence wavenumber spectrum near the Guitar Nebula to log 10 C n 2 = − 0.8 ± 0.2 m −20/3 and for the very local ISM probed by Voyager to log 10 C n 2 = − 1.57 ± 0.02 m −20/3 . Spectral amplitudes obtained from multiepoch observations of four other H α bow shocks also show significant enhancements from values that are considered typical for the diffuse, warm ionized medium, suggesting that density fluctuations near these bow shocks may be amplified by shock interactions with the surrounding medium or selection effects that favor H α emission from bow shocks embedded in denser media. 

The Galactic Center (GC), with its high density of massive stars, is a promising target for radio transient searches. In particular, the discovery and timing of a pulsar orbiting the central supermassive black hole (SMBH) of our galaxy will enable stringent strong-field tests of gravity and accurate measurements of SMBH properties. We performed multiepoch 4–8 GHz observations of the inner ≈15 pc of our galaxy using the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in 2019 August–September. Our investigations constitute the most sensitive 4–8 GHz GC pulsar survey conducted to date, reaching down to a 6.1 GHz pseudo-luminosity threshold of ≈1 mJy kpc²for a pulse duty cycle of 2.5%. We searched our data in the Fourier domain for periodic signals incorporating a constant or linearly changing line-of-sight pulsar acceleration. We report the successful detection of the GC magnetar PSR J1745−2900 in our data. Our pulsar searches yielded a nondetection of novel periodic astrophysical emissions above a 6σdetection threshold in harmonic-summed power spectra. We reconcile our nondetection of GC pulsars with inadequate sensitivity to a likely GC pulsar population dominated by millisecond pulsars. Alternatively, close encounters with compact objects in the dense GC environment may scatter pulsars away from the GC. The dense central interstellar medium may also favorably produce magnetars over pulsars.

 

Recently we found compelling evidence for a gravitational-wave background with Hellings and Downs (HD) correlations in our 15 yr data set. These correlations describe gravitational waves as predicted by general relativity, which has two transverse polarization modes. However, more general metric theories of gravity can have additional polarization modes, which produce different interpulsar correlations. In this work, we search the NANOGrav 15 yr data set for evidence of a gravitational-wave background with quadrupolar HD and scalar-transverse (ST) correlations. We find that HD correlations are the best fit to the data and no significant evidence in favor of ST correlations. While Bayes factors show strong evidence for a correlated signal, the data does not strongly prefer either correlation signature, with Bayes factors ∼2 when comparing HD to ST correlations, and ∼1 for HD plus ST correlations to HD correlations alone. However, when modeled alongside HD correlations, the amplitude and spectral index posteriors for ST correlations are uninformative, with the HD process accounting for the vast majority of the total signal. Using the optimal statistic, a frequentist technique that focuses on the pulsar-pair cross-correlations, we find median signal-to-noise ratios of 5.0 for HD and 4.6 for ST correlations when fit for separately, and median signal-to-noise ratios of 3.5 for HD and 3.0 for ST correlations when fit for simultaneously. While the signal-to-noise ratios for each of the correlations are comparable, the estimated amplitude and spectral index for HD are a significantly better fit to the total signal, in agreement with our Bayesian analysis.