Dual-frequency single-pulse study of PSR B0950+08
Abstract
PSR B0950+08 is a bright non-recycled pulsar whose single-pulse fluence variability is reportedly large. Based on observations at two widely separated frequencies, 55 MHz (NenuFAR) and 1.4 GHz (Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope), we review the properties of these single pulses. We conclude that they are more similar to ordinary pulses of radio emission than to a special kind of short and bright Giant Pulses, observed from only a handful of pulsars. We argue that temporal variation of properties of interstellar medium along the line of sight to this nearby pulsar, namely the fluctuating size of decorrelation bandwidth of diffractive scintillation makes important contribution to observed single-pulse fluence variability. We further present interesting structures in the low-frequency single-pulse spectra that resemble the "sad trombones" seen in Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs); although for PSR B0950+08 the upward frequency drift is also routinely present. We explain these spectral features with radius-to-frequency mapping, similar to the model developed by Wang et al. (2019) for FRBs. Finally, we speculate that microsecond-scale fluence variability of the general pulsar population remains poorly known, and that its further study may bring important clues about the nature of FRBs.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2109.08500,
title = {Dual-frequency single-pulse study of PSR B0950+08},
author = {A. V. Bilous and J. M. Griessmeier and T. Pennucci and Z. Wu and L. Bondonneau and V. Kondratiev and J. van Leeuwen and Y. Maan and L. Connor and L. C. Oostrum and E. Petroff and J. P. W. Verbiest and D. Vohl and J. W. McKee and G. Shaifullah and G. Theureau and O. M. Ulyanov and B. Cecconi and A. H. Coolen and S. Corbel and S. Damstra and H. Denes and J. N. Girard and B. Hut and M. Ivashina and O. O. Konovalenko and A. Kutkin and G. M. Loose and H. Mulder and M. Ruiter and R. Smits and P. L. Tokarsky and N. J. Vermaas and V. V. Zakharenko and P. Zarka and J. Ziemke},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2109.08500},
year = {2022}
}
Comments
Accepted by A&A. This version includes a number of minor corrections, including corrected FRB luminosities on the time-luminosity phase-space plot for radio pulses from neutron stars and repeating FRBs