© Juno Choi

The goal of my summer project was to utilize data from both the Nançay radio telescope and MeerKAT to model the effects of the ISM. I conducted this through the processes of scintillometry and pulsar timing in order to ultimately refine PTA noise characterization and obtain higher precision in pulsar timing.

The plots shown depict one of the extracted values I analyzed this summer, the scattering timescale (τ) over time. This is the duration that a pulsar’s pulse is broadened due to the ISM. Both plots show results from obtaining τ from PSR J1730-2304 via the autocorrelation function using a Lorentzian fit. The plot to the left compares the values extracted from each respective data set, noting the differences in the bandwidth and frequency resolution of the instruments. MeerKAT has a significantly better resolution. The plot to the right then shows the τ values when the MeerKAT data is matched in both bandwidth and frequency resolution to those of Nançay’s. This illustrates Nançay’s bias towards lower frequencies. Extractions from other pulsars show similar results.