Parkes observations for project P934 semester 2016OCTS_BPSR_05

On the smallest scales, the warm interstellar medium contains surprisingly complex structure, including extremely overdense filaments and blobs of plasma that remain intact for months, despite physical processes that should cause them to disperse on short (week) time scales. It is possible that magnetization plays a role in confining this plasma. On these AU length scales the plasma is best probed by observing the scintillations of compact background radio sources such as pulsars and quasars. Recent observations show that overdensities are confined to narrow regions along lines of sight. Over the last decade, improvements in the analysis of scintillation have enabled better characterization of these structures. These studies however have focused on the ISM in the solar-system neighbourhood and the Galactic plane. Here we propose to observe pulsars at high galactic latitudes to extend the sample lines of sight. We will determine if the scattering regions are confined to the Galactic plane or persist into the halo of the galaxy. We will also search for (or place limits on) magnetic field variations within these scattering regions and discrete structures. Our observations will also provide important constraints on the scintillation of fast radio bursts, extragalactic sources which may be magnified by the similar structures to those studied here.

在最小尺度上，暖星际介质（warm interstellar medium）具有出人意料的复杂结构，包括密度极高的纤维状结构和等离子体团——尽管理论上应使其在短短数周内弥散的物理过程存在，这些结构仍能保持完整达数月之久。
磁化作用可能在约束这类等离子体方面发挥着关键作用。
在这些天文单位（AU）尺度上，探测等离子体的最佳方式是观测脉冲星、类星体等致密背景射电源的闪烁现象。
近期观测结果表明，高密度区域被限制在视线方向上的狭窄区域内。
过去十年间，闪烁分析技术的进步使得人们能够更精准地描述这些结构的特征。
然而，这些研究主要聚焦于太阳系周边及银道面区域的星际介质（ISM）。
本研究拟观测高银纬区域的脉冲星，以拓展视线样本范围。
我们将明确散射区域是否仅局限于银道面，还是延伸至星系晕中。
此外，我们还将探寻这些散射区域及离散结构内部的磁场变化（或对其施加限制）。
我们的观测结果还将为快速射电暴（fast radio bursts）的闪烁现象提供重要约束——这类河外源可能会被与本研究对象相似的结构所放大。