Pulsar lensing geometry

Understand

Our analysis of archival VLBI data of PSR 0834+06 revealed that its scintillation properties can be precisely modelled using the inclined sheet model (Pen & Levin 2014), resulting in two distinct lens planes.

• These data strongly favour the grazing sheet model over turbulence as the primary source of pulsar scattering.
• This model can reproduce the parameters of the observed diffractive scintillation with an accuracy at the percent level.
• Comparison with new VLBI proper motion results in a direct measure of the ionized ISM screen transverse velocity.