arXiv subjects

T. V. Smirnova

Publications and source records attributed to T. V. Smirnova.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Pulsar B1237+25 at 111~MHz: average profile, mode switching, nullings, microstructure

The observations of B1237+25 at a frequency of 111 MHz were analyzed. For the first time in the normal radiation mode a new component in the central region in the average profile was detected. This component is manifested in all modes of pulsar emission: quiet-normal (QN), flare-normal (FN) and in the abnormal mode (AB). The subpulse drift is observed in the QN mode only in the first and last components of the average profile. The normal mode is interrupted by nullings and transitions into the abnormal AB mode. In the AB mode, the structure at the edge of the outer cone is destroyed, the distance between the inner and outer cones is almost doubled, and the distance between the inner cone and the central region is reduced.Analysis of our data has shown that the components of the outer and inner cones of the average profile are formed by an ordinary mode of radio emission (O-mode) and form a single cone radiation of the pulsar. The central components of the average profile (wide and narrow) are formed by an extraordinary mode (X-mode). Estimates of the height of the radiation output from the central region (X-mode) and the cone radiation (O-mode) are obtained: 80~km and 370~km, respectively. A microstructure with a time scale of $τ_μ\le0.5$~$μs$ has been detected. This time scale corresponds well to the time of the development of a spark discharge in the polar cap. For this value $τ_μ$, the height of the vacuum gap should be $h_p\le750$~cm. Based on the steepness of the individual pulse's trailing edge at the longitude of the first component, a limit was obtained on the value of the $γ$ factor of the relativistic secondary plasma: $γ\ge$260. The dependence of the distance between the components of the outer and inner cone of radiation on the frequency is the same and corresponds to a power law with an exponent of -0.16.

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arXiv2025

A nearby pulsar J1951+2837 observed by the LPA and FAST

PSR J1951+2837 is a nearby pulsar with a period of 7.334 s and dispersion measure of DM = 2.9 $\pm$ 0.6 pc cm$^{-3}$, located about 200 or 300 pc from the Sun. It occasionally radiates bright pulses and has been observed by the Large Phased Array (LPA) radio telescope at 110 MHz and by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) at 1250 MHz. We detected only 343 pulses in 228 LPA observation sessions and 5 bright pulses in two FAST sessions. Based on the times of arrival (TOAs) of these bright pulses, we determined the coherent timing solution for this pulsar at a frequency of 110 MHz. Based on flux densities (S) of these bright pulses at two frequencies ($ν$), we found that it is probably one of the known pulsars with the lowest luminosities to date, with a spectral index of about $α$ = (2.5 - 3.2) for S $\sim ν^{-α}$.

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arXiv2025

Variations in the Radiation Intensity of Pulsar B0950+08: Nine Years of Monitoring at 110 MHz

The analysis of variations in the emission intensity of the pulsar B0950+08 from 2014 to 2022 with scales from minutes to years was carried out. The observations were obtained in a round-the-clock daily survey conducted on the Large Phased Array (LPA) radio telescope. The high variability of emission is shown not only from pulse to pulse, but also at scales greater than 3 min. The average value of the estimated amplitude of these variations in 3.2 minutes is 25~Jy, the modulation index is 1. The average relative amplitude of the interpulse (IP) is $2.00 \pm 0.28\%$ of the main pulse. In individual pulses, the amplitude of the interpulse may exceed the amplitude of the main pulse (MP), but this is a rare event. Emission is observed in almost the entire period of the pulsar. For the first time, the relative amplitude of emission between the main pulse and the interpulse (emission bridge) was measured. When averaging about 10 hours, it varies from $0.8\%$ to $1.31\%$ with an average value of $1.04 \pm 0.28\%$. A high correlation was found between MP and IP amplitude variations both when averaging profiles over 3.2 minutes and when averaging over years. This correlation is due to refractive interstellar scintillation. The frequency scale of IP diffraction interstellar scintillation was measured for the first time and it was shown that the spectral forms for IP and MP are well correlated and have the same frequency scale. There are strong variations in the frequency scale of scintillation $f_{dif}$ from session to session (time interval from one day) on scales of 200-800 kHz. The refractive scale of scintillation for 1-2 days has been determined. A modulation of emission with a characteristic scale of about 130 days was detected, which, apparently, is also associated with refractive scintillation.

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arXiv2025

Search for weak components in pulsar radiation

The search for weak components outside the main pulse (MP) in the radiation of pulsars at a frequency of 110 MHz observed on the LPA LPI telescope in the Pushchino Multibeam Pulsar Search (PUMPS) has been carried out. The sample included 96 pulsars, for which the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) in the MP of the average profile during accumulation over 10 years was more than 40. It was found that PSR J1543+0929 has radiation for almost the entire period. The profile is three-component. The relative amplitudes of the lateral weak components are 0.013 and 0.026. For PSR J2234+2114, a precursor was detected that is $53^o$ away from MP.

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arXiv2024

Pushchino multibeams pulsar search -- III. Drift periods of pulsars from summed power spectra method

The drift periods P2 and P3 were searched for using the summed power spectra of 41 pulsars observed at declinations from -9o to +42o. The power spectra of pulses with a given period, pulse width and drift behavior have been simulated, the applicability of such a method for estimating drift parameters is shown. For most pulsars, the distribution of harmonic amplitudes in the power spectra corresponds to the expected distribution for these pulsars without drift. At the same time, it was found that for a number of sources, the summed power spectra accumulated over a long period of time give the same drift parameters as those determined by other methods. For 11 pulsars we have defined or redefined the drift period P2. For 8 sources the drift period P3 has been determined or redefined. The drift direction of subpulses was redefined for them.

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arXiv2023

Study of the variability and components of the pulsar B0823+26 at a frequency of 111 MHz

Studies of the pulsar B0823+26 have been carried out using the Large Phased Array (LPA) radio telescope. At time span of 5.5 years, the amplitudes of the main pulse (MP), postcursor (PC) and interpulse (IP) were evaluated in daily sessions lasting 3.7 minutes. It is shown that the ratio of the average amplitudes of MP in the bright (B) and quiet (Q) modes is 60. For B-mode, the average ratio of MP amplitudes to IP amplitudes is 65, and the ratio of MP amplitudes to PC amplitudes is 28. The number of sessions with a nulling is 4% of the total number of sessions. Structure function (SF) and correlation function analysis of MP, IP and PC amplitude variations of over a long-time interval allowed us to detect typical time scales 37 \pm 5 days and one year. The analysis of time variations shows that the time scale of 37 days is well explained by refraction on inhomogeneities of interstellar plasma, which is distributed mostly quasi-uniformly in the line-of-sight. This scintillation makes the main contribution to the observed variability. Analysis of the structure function showed that there may be a few days variability. This time scale does not have an unambiguous interpretation but is apparently associated with the refraction of radio waves on the interstellar medium. One-year variability time scale has not been previously detected. We associate its appearance with the presence of a scattering layer on a closely located screen at a distance of about 50-100 pc from the Earth.

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arXiv2023

Technical constraints on interstellar interferometry and spatially resolving the pulsar magnetosphere

Scintillation of pulsar radio signals caused by the interstellar medium can in principle be used for interstellar interferometry. Changes of the dynamic spectra as a function of pulsar longitude were in the past interpreted as having spatially resolved the pulsar magnetosphere. Guided by this prospect we used VLBI observations of PSR B1237+25 with the Arecibo and Green Bank radio telescopes at 324 MHz and analyzed such scintillation at separate longitudes of the pulse profile. We found that the fringe phase characteristics of the visibility function changed quasi-sinusoidally as a function of longitude. Also, the dynamic spectra from each of the telescopes shifted in frequency as a function of longitude. Similar effects were found for PSR B1133+16. However, we show that these effects are not signatures of having resolved the pulsar magnetosphere. Instead the changes can be related to the effect of low-level digitizing of the pulsar signal. After correcting for these effects the frequency shifts largely disappeared. Residual effects may be partly due to feed polarization impurities. Upper limits for the pulse emission altitudes of PSR B1237+25 would likely be well below the pulsar light cylinder radius. In view of our analysis we think that observations with the intent of spatially resolving the pulsar magnetosphere need to be critically evaluated in terms of these constraints on interstellar interferometry.

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arXiv2022

Electron density variations in the interstellar medium and the average frequency profile of a scintle from pulsar scintillation spectra

We observed the scintillation pattern of nine bright pulsars at 324 MHz and three at 1.68 GHz and analyzed the wavenumber spectrum which is related to electron density variations of the plasma turbulence of the interstellar medium. For all pulsars the frequency section of the autocorrelation function of the dynamic spectra to at least 45\% of the maximum corresponds to predictions of scattering theories with a range of power-law exponents of the wavenumber spectrum of $3.56 \leq α\leq 3.97$ with errors $\leq 0.05$ and a mean with standard deviation of $3.76\pm0.13$. The range includes $α=3.67$ for the Kolmogorov spectrum. Similar results although with larger errors were found from the Fourier transform of the autocorrelation functions down to $\sim 10^{-3}$ of the maximum. No clear case of a distinction between thin-screen and extended-medium scattering models was found. The average frequency profile of the scintles can be characterized for steep wavenumber spectra with $α\lesssim4$ by a cusp with a somewhat rounded peak. For flatter spectra, down to at least $α\sim 3.56$ the cusp with its peak becomes more pronounced and its decay steepens. We discuss our findings in the context of scattering characteristics of the interstellar medium.

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arXiv2022

Pushchino multibeam pulsar search -- II. Long-term variability of RRATs

Pulses from 16 previously known rotating radio transients (RRAT) have been searched at the 110 MHz daily monitor program for 4 to 5.5 years by using the Large-Phased-Array (LPA) at Pushchino. The total number of pulses detected in such a long observation interval is only 90 pulses for RRAT J0640+07 or is as high as 10,751 pulses for RRAT J0302+22. The number and amplitude of pulses varies at a time-scales from six to twenty months for RRATs J1336+33, J1404+11, J1848+15, J2051+12, J2105+22, and the pulse number can increase by one or two orders of magnitude in active phases. The long-term trends are found for RRATs J0139+33 and J0302+22, showing a 2-3 times increase in detected pulse number over 1,959 days. Some RRATs show the annual variations on both pulse number and pulse amplitude. It is hard to explain all these variation time scales by refractive scintillation on the interstellar medium. The annual and semi-annual variations are likely caused by scintillations of the inhomogeneous interplanetary plasma. Our data show that the number of observational sessions with no pulse detection over the threshold decreases exponentially with the length of pulse silence.

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arXiv2022

Investigation of four rotating radio transients properties at 111 MHz

The analysis of individual pulses of four rotating radio transients (RRATs), previously discovered in a monitoring survey running for 5.5 years at the frequency of 111 MHz, is presented. At a time interval equivalent to five days of continuous observations for each RRAT, 90, 389, 206, and 157 pulses were detected in J0640+07, J1005+30, J1132+25, and J1336+33, respectively. The investigated RRATs have a different distribution of the pulses amplitude. For J0640+07 and J1132+25, the distribution is described by a single exponent over the entire range of flux densities. For J1005+30 and J1336+33, it is a lognormal function with a power law tail. For J0640+07 and J1005+30, we have detected pulses with a signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio of few hundreds. For J1132+25 and J1336+33, the S/N of the strongest pulses reaches several tens. These RRATs show strong changing of character of emission. When strengths of pulse amplitudes significantly changed, we see long intervals of absence of emission or its strong attenuation. The analysis carried out in this work shows that it is possible that all the studied RRATs are, apparently, pulsars with giant pulses.

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arXiv2021

Ionospheric effects in VLBI measured with space-ground interferometer RadioAstron

We report on slow phase variations of the response of the space-ground radio interferometer RadioAstron during observations of pulsar B0329+54. The phase variations are due to the ionosphere and clearly distinguishable from effects of interstellar scintillation. Observations were made in a frequency range of 316-332~MHz with the 110-m Green Bank Telescope and the 10-m RadioAstron telescope in 1-hour sessions on 2012 November 26, 27, 28, and 29 with progressively increasing baseline projections of about 60, 90, 180, and 240 thousand kilometres. Quasi-periodic phase variations of interferometric scintles were detected in two observing sessions with characteristic time-scales of 12 and 10 minutes and amplitudes of up to 6.9~radians. We attribute the variations to the influence of medium-scale Travelling Ionospheric Disturbances. The measured amplitude corresponds to variations in vertical total electron content in ionosphere of about $0.1\times10^{16}\, \mathrm{m}^{-2}$. Such variations would noticeably constrain the coherent integration time in VLBI studies of compact radio sources at low frequencies.

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arXiv2019

Substructure of visibility functions from scattered radio emission of pulsars through space VLBI

We report on the substructure of visibility functions in the delay domain of PSRs B0329+54, B0823+26, B0834+06, B1933+16 and B0833-45 (Vela) observed with earth-earth and RadioAstron space-earth two-element interferometers at frequencies of 324 MHz and 1668 MHz. All visibility functions display unresolved spikes distributed over a range of delays. They are due to band-limited scintillation noise and related to the scattering time. The envelopes for each but the Vela pulsar are well fit by a single Lorentzian which we interpret as being indicative of isotropic scattering on the plane of the sky due to a thin scattering screen between the pulsar and us. In contrast, the envelope for the Vela pulsar needs to be mostly fit by at least two Lorentzians, a narrow and a broad one at the same zero delay. We interpret this characteristic as indicative of anisotropic scattering due to more complex structure of scattering screens in the supernova remnant. The possibility of describing the delay visibility functions by Lorentzians is likely a general property of pulsars and offers a new way of describing scattering parameters of the intervening interstellar medium. Furthermore, for all our pulsars, the unresolved spikes in visibility functions of similar projected baselines were well correlated indicating that the telescopes are located in the same diffraction spot. The correlation vanished for visibilities from largely different baselines, when some radio telescopes are not in the same spot.

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arXiv2018

Revealing compact structures of interstellar plasma in the Galaxy with RadioAstron

The aim of our work was to study the spatial structure of inhomogeneities of interstellar plasma in the directions of five pulsars: B0823+26, B0834+06, B1237+25, B1929+10, and B2016+28. Observations of these pulsars were made with RadioAstron space-ground radio interferometer at 324 MHz. We measured the angular size of the scattering disks to be in range between 0.63 and 3.2 mas. We determined the position of scattering screens on the line of sight. Independent estimates of the distances to the screens were made from the curvature of parabolic arcs revealed in the secondary spectra of four pulsars. The model of uniform distribution of inhomogeneities on the line of sight is not suitable. According to the results, we came to the conclusion that scattering is mainly produced by compact plasma layers and the uniform model of inhomogeneties distribution on the line of sight in not applicable.

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arXiv2017

Interstellar scintillations of PSR B1919+21: space-ground interferometry

We carried out observations of pulsar PSR B1919+21 at 324 MHz to study the distribution of interstellar plasma in the direction of this pulsar. We used the RadioAstron (RA) space radiotelescope together with two ground telescopes: Westerbork (WB) and Green Bank (GB). The maximum baseline projection for the space-ground interferometer was about 60000 km. We show that interstellar scintillation of this pulsar consists of two components: diffractive scintillations from inhomogeneities in a layer of turbulent plasma at a distance $z_{1} = 440$ pc from the observer or homogeneously distributed scattering material to pulsar; and weak scintillations from a screen located near the observer at $z_{2} = 0.14 \pm 0.05$ pc. Furthermore, in the direction to the pulsar we detected a prism that deflects radiation, leading to a shift of observed source position. We show that the influence of the ionosphere can be ignored for the space-ground baseline. Analysis of the spatial coherence function for the space-ground baseline (RA-GB) yielded the scattering angle in the observer plane: $θ_{scat}$ = 0.7 mas. An analysis of the time-frequency correlation function for weak scintillations yielded the angle of refraction in the direction to the pulsar: $θ_{ref, 0}$ = 110 ms and the distance to the prism $z_{prism} \le 2$ pc.

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arXiv2016

PSR B0329+54: Substructure in the scatter-broadened image discovered with RadioAstron on baselines up to 330,000 km

We have resolved the scatter-broadened image of PSR B0329+54 and detected substructure within it. These results are not influenced by any extended structure of a source but instead are directly attributed to the interstellar medium. We obtained these results at 324 MHz with the ground-space interferometer RadioAstron which included the space radio telescope (SRT), ground-based Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope and 64-m Kalyazin Radio Telescope on baseline projections up to 330,000 km in 2013 November 22 and 2014 January 1 to 2. At short 15,000 to 35,000 km ground-space baseline projections the visibility amplitude decreases with baseline length providing a direct measurement of the size of the scattering disk of 4.8$\pm$0.8 mas. At longer baselines no visibility detections from the scattering disk would be expected. However, significant detections were obtained with visibility amplitudes of 3 to 5% of the maximum scattered around a mean and approximately constant up to 330,000 km. These visibilities reflect substructure from scattering in the interstellar medium and offer a new probe of ionized interstellar material. The size of the diffraction spot near Earth is 17,000$\pm$3,000 km. With the assumption of turbulent irregularities in the plasma of the interstellar medium, we estimate that the effective scattering screen is located 0.6$\pm$0.1 of the distance from Earth toward the pulsar.

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arXiv2016

PSR B0329+54: Statistics of Substructure Discovered within the Scattering Disk on RadioAstron Baselines of up to 235,000 km

We discovered fine-scale structure within the scattering disk of PSR B0329+54 in observations with the RadioAstron ground-space radio interferometer. Here, we describe this phenomenon, characterize it with averages and correlation functions, and interpret it as the result of decorrelation of the impulse-response function of interstellar scattering between the widely-separated antennas. This instrument included the 10-m Space Radio Telescope, the 110-m Green Bank Telescope, the 14x25-m Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope, and the 64-m Kalyazin Radio Telescope. The observations were performed at 324 MHz, on baselines of up to 235,000 km in November 2012 and January 2014. In the delay domain, on long baselines the interferometric visibility consists of many discrete spikes within a limited range of delays. On short baselines it consists of a sharp spike surrounded by lower spikes. The average envelope of correlations of the visibility function show two exponential scales, with characteristic delays of $τ_1=4.1\pm 0.3\ μ{\rm s}$ and $τ_2=23\pm 3\ μ{\rm s}$, indicating the presence of two scales of scattering in the interstellar medium. These two scales are present in the pulse-broadening function. The longer scale contains 0.38 times the scattered power of the shorter one. We suggest that the longer tail arises from highly-scattered paths, possibly from anisotropic scattering or from substructure at large angles.

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arXiv2014

RadioAstron Studies of the Nearby, Turbulent Interstellar Plasma With the Longest Space-Ground Interferometer Baseline

RadioAstron space-ground VLBI observations of the pulsar B0950+08, conducted with the 10-m space radio telescope in conjunction with the Arecibo 300-m telescope and Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope at a frequency of 324 MHz, were analyzed in order to investigate plasma inhomogeneities in the direction of this nearby pulsar. The observations were conducted at a spacecraft distance of 330,000 km, resulting in a projected baseline of 220,000 km, providing the greatest angular resolution ever achieved at meter wavelengths. Our analysis is based on fundamental behavior of structure and coherence functions. We find that the pulsar shows scintillation on two frequency scales, both much less than the observing frequency; but modulation is less than 100%. We infer that the scattering is weak, but a refracting wedge disperses the scintillation pattern. The refraction angle of this "cosmic prism" is measured as theta_0=1.1 - 4.4 mas, with the refraction direction being approximately perpendicular to the observer velocity. We show that the observed parameters of scintillation effects indicate that two plasma layers lie along the line of sight to the pulsar, at distances of 4.4 - 16.4 pc and 26 - 170 pc, and traveling in different directions relative to the line of sight. Spectra of turbulence for the two layers are found to follow a power law with the indices gamma_1 = gamma_2 = 3.00 +/- 0.08, significantly different from the index expected for a Kolmogorov spectrum of turbulence, gamma=11/3.

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arXiv2011

Effects of Intermittent Emission: Noise Inventory for Scintillating Pulsar B0834+06

We compare signal and noise for observations of the scintillating pulsar B0834+06, using very-long baseline interferometry and a single-dish spectrometer. Comparisons between instruments and with models suggest that amplitude variations of the pulsar strongly affect the amount and distribution of self-noise. We show that noise follows a quadratic polynomial with flux density, in spectral observations. Constant coefficients, indicative of background noise, agree well with expectation; whereas second-order coefficients, indicative of self-noise, are about 3 times values expected for a pulsar with constant on-pulse flux density. We show that variations in flux density during the 10-sec integration account for the discrepancy. In the secondary spectrum, about 97% of spectral power lies within the pulsar's typical scintillation bandwidth and timescale; an extended scintillation arc contains about 3%. For a pulsar with constant on-pulse flux density, noise in the dynamic spectrum will appear as a uniformly-distributed background in the secondary spectrum. We find that this uniform noise background contains 95% of noise in the dynamic spectrum for interferometric observations; but only 35% of noise in the dynamic spectrum for single-dish observations. Receiver and sky dominate noise for our interferometric observations, whereas self-noise dominates for single-dish. We suggest that intermittent emission by the pulsar, on timescales < 300 microseconds, concentrates self-noise near the origin in the secondary spectrum, by correlating noise over the dynamic spectrum. We suggest that intermittency sets fundamental limits on pulsar astrometry or timing. Accounting of noise may provide means for detection of intermittent sources, when effects of propagation are unknown or impractical to invert.

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