An Extreme Radio Fluctuation of Pulsar B1929+10

Abstract

We report the detection of an extreme flux decrease accompanied by clear dispersion measure (DM) and rotation measure (RM) variations for pulsar B1929+10 during the 110 minute radio observation with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope. The radio flux decreases by 2–3 orders of magnitude within a rapid timescale of about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, the variations of DM and RM are approximately 0.05 pc cm ^−3 and 0.7 rad m ^−2 , respectively. Frequency-dependent analysis of DM indicates an extremely weak chromatic DM feature, which does not notably affect the radiative behavior detected. Moreover, the pulsar timing analysis shows an additional time delay from 100 μ s to 400 μ s in the event. These results are speculated to be due to the eclipse and bend for the radio emission of pulsar B1929+10 by a highly dense outflow from the pulsar. This not only impacts the intrinsic radio emission feature but also affects the pulsar timing behavior. Nevertheless, a plasma lens effect lasting around 20 minutes could also be responsible for the event.

Keywords

• Radio pulsars
• Interstellar medium
• Plasma astrophysics