Abstract

Broadband radio waves emitted from pulsars are distorted as they propagate toward Earth due to interactions with the free electrons that comprise the interstellar medium (ISM). Irregularities in the ISM cause multipath propagation of the wavefronts along the line of sight toward Earth, with lower radio frequencies being more greatly impacted than higher frequencies. These delays result in later times of arrival for the lower frequencies and cause the observed pulse to arrive with a broadened tail, which can be described using a pulse broadening function. CLEAN deconvolution, as outlined in Bhat et al. (2003) for use in pulsar scattering measurements, can be employed to recover both the intrinsic pulse shape and pulse broadening function of radio pulsar pulse profiles, thus quantifying the effect the ISM has on radio pulsar emission. This work expands upon that done by Bhat et al. (2003) by developing a more robust CLEAN deconvolution algorithm in Python, parameterizing the algorithm via comparison to recent cyclic spectroscopy methods outlined in Dolch et al. (2021), and the deployment of the algorithm on observational data of the highly scattered millisecond pulsar J1903+0327.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Pulsars--Research; Signal processing--Mathematics; Interstellar matter; Spectrum analysis--Deconvolution

Publication Date

7-25-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Astrophysical Sciences and Technology (Ph.D.)

Advisor

Yosef Zlochower

Advisor/Committee Member

Jeyhan Kartaltepe

Advisor/Committee Member

Michael Lam

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

Plan Codes

ASTP-PHD

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