arXiv subjects

Visweshwar Ram Marthi

Publications and source records attributed to Visweshwar Ram Marthi.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Long-term monitoring of repeating FRB 20220912A with the uGMRT at low radio frequencies

Some repeating FRBs exhibit occasional extreme repetition rates, but very few show a sustained high activity level. One such hyperactive repeater is FRB 20220912A, which was discovered by CHIME/FRB Collaboration on 2022 September 12. Here, we present results from a long-term monitoring campaign of FRB 20220912A using the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) in the frequency range from 300 to 750 MHz. Over the course of nearly two years, we detected a total of 643 bursts in this frequency range. The source exhibited extreme activity for a few months after its discovery and sustained its active phase for more than 1.5 years, with unsystematic modulations in the activity during this phase. The cumulative energy distributions in both bands show a break, consistent with other active repeaters like FRB 20121102A, FRB 202011124A, etc., suggesting common underlying emission mechanisms. Moreover, we show that the energy distribution shape for FRB 20220912A remains broadly same across a large range of frequencies and over time. Overall, the extended high activity, estimated total energy output, persistent power-law tails in the energy distributions, and the lack of detectable short timescale periodicity favor progenitor models invoking young dynamic magnetars, potentially emitting pulses across large rotation phase ranges.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

SPICE: Scintillation Pipeline for Interferometric Candidate Extraction

We present Scintillation Pipeline for Interferometric Candidate Extraction (SPICE) an automated CASA-based pipeline developed to identify pulsar candidates in Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) and upgraded GMRT (uGMRT) data through their diffractive interstellar scintillation signatures. SPICE integrates flagging, calibration, imaging, and classification, with robust RFI excision, iterative self-calibration with dynamic reference antenna selection, source detection using PyBDSF, and classification based on our earlier development of scintillation-based visibility correlation searches. SPICE is available publicly on github and is archived on Zenodo. We applied SPICE to archival datasets from both legacy GMRT and uGMRT. The pipeline successfully recovered known pulsars such as PSR 0437-4715, PSR B0450-18, and PSR B0329+54, yielding scintillation parameters consistent with expectations. Non-detections in some scans highlight the influence of pervasive RFI, the dependence on the reference antenna, and the intrinsic variability of the scintillation properties. SPICE complements time-domain searches by enabling reproducible scintillation-based candidate identification in interferometric data. Its application to the GMRT archive opens a pathway for discovering compact variable sources and expanding pulsar searches beyond time-domain searches.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2026

Prospects for identifying pulsar candidates in radio surveys using scintillation

In our previous paper, we developed a technique for identifying pulsar candidates in interferometric radio images using their distinctive scintillation signatures. Building on this technique, the present study simulates a pulsar population using the PsrPopPy Python module to investigate the technique's limitations and detection capabilities. Among pulsars detectable exclusively by this technique, 50% have duty cycles exceeding the mean value of 0.09 observed in time-domain detections. Our pulsar population simulations revealed a set of observational parameters that optimize pulsar detection. An observation frequency of ~ 1420 MHz and a channel width of ~10 kHz emerge as the optimal configuration to maximize the pulsar detection efficiency. By applying a scintillation-based technique to future radio telescopes like DSA-2000, we can detect 56% of normal pulsars and 84% of MSPs in addition to those detected using non-imaging, time-domain surveys. These detected pulsars cannot be verified by time-domain searches.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2025

Low-energy Radio Bursts from Magnetar XTE J1810$-$197: Implications for Fast Radio Bursts

Magnetars are the leading candidate sources of fast radio bursts (FRBs). However, the observational probes of the connections between magnetars and FRBs are severely limited by the paucity of detection of highly energetic radio events from magnetars -- to date, only one radio burst as energetic as FRBs has been detected from a Galactic magnetar. Here, we present a detailed analysis of a large sample of low-energy bursts detected from the magnetar XTE J1810$-$197, and probe their implications for FRB emission from magnetars. We report detection of over 97000 bright radio pulses from 242 observations of the magnetar XTE J1810$-$197 over 4.5 years and two decades in frequency (300 MHz to 6.15 GHz), using the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope and the Green Bank Telescope, after its recent outburst onset in December 2018. We present detailed analysis of the burst fluence distributions and their trends with time as well as frequency, and the waiting time distribution. We show that XTE J1810$-$197 rapidly switches between pulsar-like and giant-pulse-like emission states, and magnetars like XTE J1810$-$197 remain viable and likely emitters of FRBs, in the form of giant-pulses with energies comparable to FRBs. We also demonstrate that the lack of the detection of an underlying periodicity in the bursts from repeating FRBs might be caused by emission across a wide range of spin phases.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

A direct measurement of the electron density turbulence parameter $C_1$ and implications for the emission size of the magnetar XTE J1810-197

We report a direct measurement of the electron density turbulence parameter $C_1$, enabled by 550-750~MHz baseband observations with the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope. The parameter $C_1$ depends on the power law index of the wavenumber spectrum of electron density inhomogeneities in the ionized interstellar medium. Radio waves propagating through the inhomogeneous ionized medium suffer multipath propagation, as a result of which the pulsed emission from a neutron star undergoes scatter broadening. Consequently, interference between the delayed copies of the scatter-broadened electric field manifests as scintillation. We measure a scintillation bandwidth \nud=$149\pm3$~Hz as well as a scatter-broadening timescale \taud=$1.22\pm0.09$~ms at 650~MHz. These two quantities are related through the uncertainty relation $C_1 = 2π$\nud\taud, using which we directly measure $C_1=1.2\pm0.1$. We describe the methods employed to obtain these results and discuss their implications in general, as well as for the magnetar XTE~J1810\textminus197, towards which the measurements have been made. We also discuss how such, effectively in-situ, measurements of $C_1$ can aid in inferring the wavenumber spectrum power law index and hence quantitatively discriminate between the various possible scattering scenarios in the ionized medium. Finally, using the fact $C_1 \sim 1$, we nominally constrain the emission size to less than a few 1000~km for a screen very close to the magnetar, and to within the magnetosphere for all screen distances.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Identifying pulsar candidates in interferometric radio images using scintillation

Pulsars have been primarily detected by their narrow pulses or periodicity in time domain data. Interferometric surveys for pulsars are challenging due to the trade-off between beam sensitivity and beam size and the corresponding tradeoff between survey sensitivity (depth), sky coverage, and computational efforts. The detection sensitivity of time-domain searches for pulsars is affected by dispersion smearing, scattering, and rapid orbital motion of pulsars in binaries. We have developed a new technique to select pulsar candidates in interferometric radio images by identifying scintillating sources and measuring their scintillation bandwidth and timescale. Identifying likely candidates allows sensitive, focused time-domain searches, saving computational effort. Pulsar scintillation is independent of its timing properties and hence offers a different selection of pulsars compared to time-domain searches. Candidates identified from this method could allow us to find hard-to-detect pulsars, such as sub-millisecond pulsars and pulsars in very compact, highly-accelerated binary orbits. We use uGMRT observations in the fields of PSR\,B1508+55, PSR\,J0437$-$4715, and PSR\,B0031$-$07 as test cases for our technique. We demonstrate that the technique correctly differentiates between the pulsar and other non-scintillating point sources and show that the extracted dynamic spectrum of the pulsar is equivalent to that extracted from the uGMRT phased array beam. We show the results from our analysis of known pulsar fields and discuss challenges in dealing with interference and instrumental effects.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2023

DM-power: an algorithm for high precision dispersion measure with application to fast radio bursts

We present DM-power, a new method for precisely determining the dispersion measure (DM) of radio bursts, and apply it to the Fast Radio Burst (FRB) source FRB~20180916B. Motivated by the complex structure on multiple time scales seen in FRBs, DM-power optimizes the DM by combining measurements at multiple Fourier frequencies in the power spectrum of the burst. By optimally weighting the measurements at each Fourier frequency, DM-power finds a burst DM that effectively incorporates information on many different burst timescales. We validate this technique on simulated Gaussian pulse profiles with a precision down to $σ_{\rm DM} \sim 0.001~{\rm pc~cm}^{-3}$, and then apply it to bursts from pulsar B0329+54 and FRB~20180916B. The precision of these DM measurements are sufficient to measure a statistically significant variation in DM over a $\approx 2$ hr span. While this variation could be the result of electron density variations along the line of sight, it is more like that the observed variation is the result of intrinsic frequency-dependent burst structure that can mimic a dispersive delay.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

Simulated Predictions for HI at $z = 3.35$ with the Ooty Wide Field Array (OWFA) -- II: Foreground Avoidance

Considering the upcoming OWFA, we use simulations of the foregrounds and the $z = 3.35$ HI 21-cm intensity mapping signal to identify the $(k_{\perp},k_{\parallel})$ modes where the expected 21-cm power spectrum $P(k_{\perp},k_{\parallel})$ is substantially larger than the predicted foreground contribution. Only these uncontaminated $k$-modes are used for measuring $P(k_{\perp},k_{\parallel})$ in the "Foreground Avoidance" technique. Though the foregrounds are largely localised within a wedge. we find that the small leakage beyond the wedge surpasses the 21-cm signal across a significant part of the $(k_{\perp},k_{\parallel})$ plane. The extent of foreground leakage is extremely sensitive to the frequency window function used to estimate $P(k_{\perp},k_{\parallel})$. It is possible to reduce the leakage by making the window function narrower, however this comes at the expense of losing a larger fraction of the 21-cm signal. It is necessary to balance these competing effects to identify an optimal window function. Considering a broad class of cosine window functions, we identify a six term window function as optimal for 21-cm power spectrum estimation with OWFA. Considering only the $k$-modes where the expected 21-cm power spectrum exceeds the predicted foregrounds by a factor of $100$ or larger, a $5\,σ$ detection of the binned power spectrum is possible in the $k$ ranges $0.18 \leq k \leq 0.3 \, {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ and $0.18 \le k \le 0.8 \, {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ with $1,000-2,000$ hours and $10^4$ hours of observation respectively.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2020

Detection of 15 bursts from FRB 180916.J0158+65 with the uGMRT

We report the findings of a uGMRT observing campaign on FRB 180916.J0158+65, discovered recently to show a 16.35-day periodicity of its active cycle. We observed the source at 550-750 MHz for $\sim 2$ hours each during three successive cycles at the peak of its expected active period. We find 0, 12, and 3 bursts respectively, implying a highly variable bursting rate even within the active phase. We consistently detect faint bursts with spectral energies only an order of magnitude higher than the Galactic burst source SGR~1935+2154. The times of arrival of the detected bursts rule out many possible aliased solutions, strengthening the findings of the 16.35-day periodicity. A short-timescale periodicity search returned no highly significant candidates. Two of the beamformer-detected bursts were bright enough to be clearly detected in the imaging data, achieving sub-arcsecond localization, and proving as a proof-of-concept for FRB imaging with the GMRT. We provide a $3σ$ upper limit of the persistent radio flux density at 650 MHz of $66~μ{\rm Jy}$ which, combined with the EVN and VLA limits at 1.6~GHz, further constrains any potential radio counterpart. These results demonstrate the power of uGMRT for targeted observations to detect and localize known repeating FRBs.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2018

Disentangling interstellar plasma screens with pulsar VLBI: Combining auto- and cross-correlations

Pulsar scintillation allows a glimpse into small-scale plasma structures in the interstellar medium, if we can infer their properties from the scintillation pattern. With Very Long Baseline Interferometry and working in delay-delay rate space, where the contributions of pairs of images to the interference pattern become localized, the scattering geometry and distribution of scattered images on the sky can be determined if a single, highly-anisotropic scattering screen is responsible for the scintillation. However, many pulsars are subject to much more complex scattering environments where this method cannot be used. We present a novel technique to reconstruct the scattered flux of the pulsar and solve for the scattering geometry in these cases by combining interferometric visibilities with cross-correlations of single-station intensities. This takes advantage of the fact that, considering a single image pair in delay-delay rate space, the visibilities are sensitive to the sum of the image angular displacements, while the cross-correlated intensities are sensitive to the difference, so that their combination can be used to localize both images of the pair. We show that this technique is able to reconstruct the published scattering geometry of PSR B0834+06, then apply it to simulations of more complicated scattering systems, where we find that it can distinguish features from different scattering screens even when the presence of multiple screens is not obvious in the Fourier transform of the dynamic spectrum. This technique will allow us to both better understand the distribution of scattering within the interstellar medium and to apply current scintillometry techniques, such as modelling scintillation and constraining the location of pulsar emission, to sources for which a current lack of understanding of the scattering environment precludes the use of these techniques. (abridged)

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2017

An analytical method to simulate the HI 21-cm visibility signal for intensity mapping experiments

Simulations play a vital role in testing and validating HI 21-cm power spectrum estimation techniques. Conventional methods use techniques like N-body simulations to simulate the sky signal which is then passed through a model of the instrument. This makes it necessary to simulate the HI distribution in a large cosmological volume, and incorporate both the light-cone effect and the telescope's chromatic response. The computational requirements may be particularly large if one wishes to simulate many realizations of the signal. In this paper we present an analytical method to simulate the HI visibility signal. This is particularly efficient if one wishes to simulate a large number of realizations of the signal. Our method is based on theoretical predictions of the visibility correlation which incorporate both the light-cone effect and the telescope's chromatic response. We have demonstrated this method by applying it to simulate the HI visibility signal for the upcoming Ooty Wide Field Array Phase I.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2017

Simulated foreground predictions for HI at z = 3.35 with the Ooty Wide Field Array: I. Instrument and the foregrounds

Foreground removal is the most important step in detecting the large-scale redshifted HI 21-cm signal. Modelling foreground spectra is challenging and is further complicated by the chromatic response of the telescope. We present a multi-frequency angular power spectrum (MAPS) estimator for use in a survey for redshifted HI 21-cm emission from z~3.35, and demonstrate its ability to accurately characterize the foregrounds. This survey will be carried out with the two wide-field interferometer modes of the upgraded Ooty Radio Telescope, called the Ooty Wide Field Array (OWFA), at 326.5 MHz. We have tailored the two-visibility correlation for OWFA to estimate the MAPS and test it with simulated foregrounds. In the process, we describe a software model that encodes the geometry and the details of the telescope, and simulates a realistic model for the bright radio sky. This article presents simulations which include the full chromatic response of the telescope, in addition to the frequency dependence intrinsic to the foregrounds. We find that the visibility correlation MAPS estimator recovers the input angular power spectrum accurately, and that the instrument response to the foregrounds dominates the systematic errors in the recovered foreground power spectra.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2017

Prowess - a software model for the Ooty Wide Field Array

One of the scientific objectives of the Ooty Wide Field Array(OWFA) is to observe the redshifted HI emission from z ~ 3.35. Although predictions spell out optimistic outcomes in reasonable integration times, these studies were based purely on analytical assumptions, without accounting for limiting systematics. A software model for OWFA has been developed with a view to understanding the instrument-induced systematics, by describing a complete software model for the instrument. This model has been implemented through a suite of programs, together called Prowess, which has been conceived with a dual role of an emulator as well as observatory data analysis software. The programming philosophy followed in building Prowess enables any user to define an own set of functions and add new functionality. This paper describes a co-ordinate system suitable for OWFA in which the baselines are defined. The foregrounds are simulated from their angular power spectra. The visibilities are then computed from the foregrounds. These visibilities are then used for further processing, such as calibration and power spectrum estimation. The package allows for rich visualisation features in multiple output formats in an interactive fashion, giving the user an intuitive feel for the data. Prowess has been extensively used for numerical predictions of the foregrounds for the OWFA HI experiment.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2013

Non-linear Redundancy Calibration

For radio interferometric arrays with a sufficient number of redundant spacings the multiplicity of measurements of the same sky visibility can be used to determine both the antenna gains as well as the true visibilities. Many of the earlier approaches to this problem focused on linearized versions of the relation between the measured and the true visibilities. Here we propose to use a standard non-linear minimization algorithm to solve for both the antenna gains as well as the true visibilities. We show through simulations done in the context of the ongoing upgrade to the Ooty Radio Telescope that the non-linear minimization algorithm is fast compared to the earlier approaches. Further, unlike the most straightforward linearized approach, which works with the logarithms of the visibilities and the gains, the non-linear minimization algorithm leads to unbiased solutions. Finally we present error estimates for the estimated gains and visibilities. Monte-Carlo simulations establish that the estimator is indeed statistically efficient, achieving the Cramer-Rao bound.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2010

A search for the 55 MHz OH line

The OH molecule, found abundantly in the Milky Way, has four transitions at the ground state rotational level(J = 3/2) at cm wavelengths. These are E1 transitions between the F+ and F- hyperfine levels of the Lambda doublet of the J=3/2 state. There are also forbidden M1 transitions between the hyperfine levels within each of the doublet states occuring at frequencies 53.171 MHz and 55.128 MHz. These are extremely weak and hence difficult to detect. However there is a possibility that the level populations giving rise to these lines are inverted under special conditions, in which case it may be possible to detect them through their maser emission. We describe the observational diagnostics for determining when the hyperfine levels are inverted, and identify a region near W44 where these conditions are satisfied. A high-velocity-resolution search for these hyperfine OH lines using the low frequency feeds on four antennas of the GMRT and the new GMRT Software Backend(GSB) was performed on this target near W44. We place a 3-sigma upper limit of ~17.3 Jy (at 1 km/s velocity resolution) for the 55 MHz line from this region. This corresponds to an upper limit of 3 X 10^8 for the amplification of the Galactic synchrotron emission providing the background.

astro-ph.GA↗