Measure the scintillation timescale and bandwidth of PSR J0443−68

Determine the scintillation timescale and obtain a reliable scintillation-bandwidth measurement for PSR J0443−68 from observations with sufficient temporal and frequency resolution.

Background

PSR J0443−68 exhibits strong frequency- and time-dependent variability interpreted as scintillation. The available dynamic spectrum is only marginally resolved: the zero-lag autocorrelation spike occupies approximately one subintegration and a few frequency channels. Although a formal fit yields an estimated scintillation bandwidth, the time-domain fit is below the subintegration duration, and the residual autocorrelation structure is weak. Consequently, improved observations are needed to establish both scintillation parameters reliably.

References

However, the corresponding time-domain fit yields $\tau_d$ smaller than the subintegration duration, demonstrating that the scintillation timescale cannot be reliably measured in this observation. Furthermore, after excluding the zero-lag component, the remaining ACF structure is weak and poorly constrained, suggesting that the measured $\Delta \nu_{d}$ should also be treated with caution.

— Discovery of Hidden Extragalactic Pulsars in the Parkes Archival Data  (2610.12450 - Sengar et al., 8 Oct 2026) in Section 3.1, PSR J0443−68