Low-frequency observations of pulsars provide a powerful means for probing the microstructure in the turbulent interstellar medium (ISM). Here we report on high-resolution dynamic spectral analysis of our observations of the timing-array millisecond pulsar PSR J0437-4715 with the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), enabled by our recently commissioned tied-array beam processing pipeline for voltage data recorded from the high time resolution mode of the MWA. A secondary spectral analysis reveals faint parabolic arcs akin to those seen in high-frequency observations of pulsars with the Green Bank and Arecibo telescopes. Data from Parkes observations at a higher frequency of 732 MHz reveal a similar parabolic feature with a curvature that scales approximately as the square of the observing wavelength (λ 2 ) to the MWAʼs frequency of 192 MHz. Our analysis suggests that scattering toward PSR J0437-4715 predominantly arises from a compact region about 115 pc from the Earth, which matches well with the expected location of the edge of the Local Bubble that envelopes the local Solar neighborhood. As well as demonstrating new and improved pulsar science capabilities of the MWA, our analysis underscores the potential of low-frequency pulsar observations for gaining valuable insights into the local ISM and for characterizing the ISM toward timing-array pulsars.
The phenomenon of subpulse drifting may hold the key to understanding the pulsar emission mechanism. Here, we report on new observations of PSR J0034−0721 (B0031−07), carried out with the Murchison Widefield Array at 185 MHz. We observe three distinct drift modes whose "vertical" drift band separations (P 3 ) and relative abundances are consistent with previous studies at similar and higher frequencies. The driftbands, however, are observed to change their slopes over the course of individual drift modes, which can be interpreted as a continuously changing drift rate. The implied acceleration of the intrinsic carousel rotation cannot easily be explained by plasma models based on E×B drift. Furthermore, we find that methods of classifying the drift modes by means of P 3 measurements can sometimes produce erroneous identifications in the presence of a changing drift rate. The "horizontal" separation between driftbands (P 2 ) is found to be larger at later rotation phases within the pulse window, which is inconsistent with the established effects of retardation, aberration, and the motion of the visible point. Longer observations spanning at least ∼ 10, 000 pulses are required to determine how the carousel rotation parameters change from one drift sequence to the next.
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