The effect of pulse profile evolution on pulsar dispersion measure

Abstract

In an earlier paper (Ahuja, et al, 2005), based on simultaneous multi-frequency observations with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), we reported the variation of pulsar dispersion measures (DMs) with frequency. A few different explanations are possible for such frequency dependence, and a possible candidate is the effect of pulse shape evolution on the DM estimation technique. In this paper we describe extensive simulations we have done to investigate the effect of pulse profile evolution on pulsar DM estimates. We find that it is only for asymmetric pulse shapes that the DM estimate is significantly affected due to profile evolution with frequency. Using multi-frequency data sets from our earlier observations, we have carried out systematic analyses of PSR B0329+54 and PSR B1642-03. Both these pulsars have central core dominated emission which does not show significant asymmetric profile evolution with frequency. Even so, we find that the estimated DM shows significant variation with frequency for these pulsars. We also report results from new, simultaneous multi-frequency observations of PSR B1133+16 carried out using the GMRT in phased array mode. This pulsar has an asymmetric pulse profile with significant evolution with frequency. We show that in such a case, amplitude of the observed DM variations can be attributed to profile evolution with frequency. We suggest that genuine DM variations with frequency could arise due to propagation effects through the interstellar medium and/or the pulsar magnetosphere.