Fine frequency structure of interstellar scintillation pattern in radio emission of the PSR B1133+16 at 111 MHz

Abstract

The B1133+16 pulsar was observed at a frequency of 111 MHz with the LPA PRAO radio telescope from October 2022 to March 2023. Observations were made twice a week for two days in a row. In total 38 measurements of the scattering parameters were carried out with a high frequency resolution (up to 65 Hz). We used continuous recording of voltage in the frequency band 2.5 MHz with 8-bit digitization. The signal was reconstructed using the coherent dedispersion method. Dynamic spectra (DSP) were constructed for each observing session. Then, for each DSP, we calculated a two-dimensional autocorrelation function (2DACF) and analyzed its frequency and time sections. We have studied the fine frequency structure of pulsar scintillations by analyzing both the dynamic spectra, and the spectra of individual pulses. It has been found that the intrinsic shape of diffraction distortion on average can be represented by a sharp two-sided function with a characteristic frequency width of 1–2 kHz. The long-term variability of the following parameters has been carefully studied: characteristic scales in frequency and time (fdifandtdif), and rotation measureRM. Based on the analysis of long-term variations, it is suggested that the true frequency form of scintillations may be distorted by ionospheric effects. We also compared the scintillation parameters separately for the two mean profile components, and no differences between the parameters were found.