On the cusp of cusps: a universal model for extreme scattering events in the ISM

Abstract

ABSTRACT The scattering structures in the interstellar medium responsible for so-called extreme scattering events (ESEs), observed in quasars and pulsars, remain enigmatic. Current models struggle to explain the high-frequency light curves of ESEs, and a recent analysis of a double lensing event in PSR B0834+06 reveals features of ESEs that may also be challenging to accommodate via existing models. We propose that these features arise naturally when the lens has a cusp-like profile, described by the elementary A3 cusp catastrophe. This is an extension of previous work describing pulsar scintillation as arising from A2 fold catastrophes in thin, corrugated plasma sheets along the line of sight. We call this framework of describing the lens potentials via elementary catastrophes ‘doubly catastrophic lensing’, as catastrophes (e.g. folds and cusps) have long been used to describe universal features in the light curves of lensing events that generically manifest, regardless of the precise details of the lens. Here, we argue that the lenses themselves may be described by these same elementary structures. If correct, the doubly catastrophic lensing framework would provide a unified description of scintillation and ESEs, where the lenses responsible for these scattering phenomena are universal and can be fully described by a small number of unfolding parameters. This could enable their application as giant cosmic lenses for precision measurements of coherent sources, including fast radio bursts and pulsars.