Very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) provides the resolution needed to make precision measurements of a pulsar's parallax and proper motion. In making these measurements, the astronomer is faced with difficult calibration problems and a paucity of strong point-like calibrators that ultimately limit the accuracy of parallax measurements of even the brightest pulsars. A new technique to calibrate away the effects of the ionosphere, the dominant source of phase error at frequencies below 5 GHz, has led to the new measurements of nine pulsar parallaxes to 100 microarcsecond or better precision.
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0210661,
title = {VLBI Techniques in Pulsar Astronomy},
author = {Walter Brisken},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0210661},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
6 pages, 2 figures, to appear in ASP Conf. Ser., Radio Pulsars, ed. M. Bailes, D. J. Nice, & S. E. Thorsett (proceedings of August 2002 meeting in Crete)