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arXiv · 2506.14519

FAST Pulsar Database: II. Scattering profiles of 149 Pulsars

W. C. Jing·J. L. Han·C. Wang·P. F. Wang·T. Wang·N. N. Cai·J. Xu·Z. L. Yang·D. J. Zhou·Yi Yan·W. Q. Su·X. Y. Gao·L. Xie
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Abstract

The turbulent ionized interstellar medium diffracts radio waves and makes them propagate in multiple paths. The pulse-broadening observed at low frequencies results from the scattering effect of interstellar clouds of ionized gas. During the Galactic Plane Pulsar Snapshot (GPPS) survey and other projects by using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), we detect the pulse-broadening for 149 pulsars in the radio frequency band between 1.0 and 1.5 GHz, including 68 newly discovered pulsars in the GPPS survey and 81 previously known pulsars. We find that a more accurate dispersion measure can be obtained from aligning the front edge of the scattered subband pulses at the 1/4 or 1/2 peak level for most pulsars with one dominant component in the intrinsic profile, and the best DM values from aligning the intrinsic profile components from the model-fitting. From the pulse profiles at a few subbands we derive the pulse-broadening timescale and the scattering spectral index. These scattering parameters are measured for the first time for 113 pulsars. For 36 pulsars with previously detected scattering features, our measurements of the pulse-broadening timescale are consistent with results in the literature. We find that pulsars behind spiral arms show a stronger scattering effect due to greater density fluctuations in the arm regions. With a properly derived dispersion measure and careful calibration, we also present polarization profiles for 82 pulsars in three subbands of FAST observations.

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W. C. Jing, J. L. Han, C. Wang, P. F. Wang, T. Wang, N. N. Cai, J. Xu, Z. L. Yang, D. J. Zhou, Yi Yan, W. Q. Su, X. Y. Gao, L. Xie. 2026-07-03. FAST Pulsar Database: II. Scattering profiles of 149 Pulsars. https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.14519

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