Secondary dynamical spectra of pulsars as indicators of inhomogeneities in the interstellar plasma

Abstract

Observations of ten bright pulsars were obtained on the Giant Meter-wavelength Radio Telescope (GMRT, India) in order to study the effects of scattering of their radio waves by contructing and analyzing secondary dynamical spectra. The observations were conducted at 610 and 1420 MHz using a digital spectral analyzer operating in a real-time regime. The frequency resolution was 32.5 or 65.1 kHz, and the readout time was from 61.44 to 512 μs. Archival data for five pulsars at 327 MHz were also used. Procedures for normalizing the spectra and for constructing the secondary dynamical spectra were developed. Parabolic arcs were found in the secondary spectra of four pulsars (B1642-03, B1556-44, B2154+40, and B2021+51). The curvature of these arcs can be used to determine the distance to the effective scattering screen. In all cases, these screens are located relatively near the pulsars themselves.