text:
# Searches for Fast Radio Transients

## 1 Introduction

Fast radio transients – pulses with durations of seconds or less – are important indicators of coherent emission processes in astrophysical sources. The detection of such pulses is complicated by their propagation through the intervening ionized media. We focus on the interstellar medium (ISM) in this paper, but the intergalactic and interplanetary media are also relevant for some objects. The dominant effects, dispersion and scattering, distort pulses but also provide a signature for distinguishing them from terrestrial radio-frequency interference (RFI). In this paper we discuss algorithms for detecting pulses that are dispersed and scattered to varying degrees by the ISM. This discussion is quite general. Though it is motivated by pulsar radio emission, particularly the so-called ‘giant-pulses’ from the Crab pulsar and a few other objects, our analysis applies to any other transient radio source.

Searches for radio transients have a long history. Indeed, pulsars were first discovered by the detection of single pulses on a chart recorder Hewish et al. (1968), with the Crab pulsar detected through its giant pulses soon after Staelin & Reifenstein (1968). Davies & Large (1970) detected three new pulsars in their single-pulse search but failed to detect any pulses from 13 supernova remnants. A search for single pulses from the X-ray sources Scorpius X-1 and Cygnus X-1, at one time thought to be possibly associated with pulsars, was also unsuccessful Taylor et al. (1972). In a search for radio counterparts to the gravitational pulses reported by Weber (1969), both Hughes & Retallack (1973) and Edwards et al. (1974) detected excesses of radio pulses from the direction of the Galactic center, but did not believe them to be correlated with the gravitational pulses. With the goal of detecting the single, large radio pulse expected to be emitted at the time of a supernova explosion Colgate & Noerdlinger (1971), Huguenin & Moore (1974) and Kardashev et al. (1977) performed radio searches for single pulses, but found no convincing signals of extraterrestrial origin aside from solar flares. O’Sullivan et al. (1978) and Phinney & Taylor (1979) conducted searches for radio bursts possibly associated with annihilating black holes, as suggested by Rees (1977), but likewise found no convincing signals. Linscott & Erkes (1980) reported the detection of highly dispersed pulses from the elliptical galaxy M87, at a distance of roughly 15 Mpc, attributing these pulses to a massive compact object at the center. However, subsequent attempts by others to confirm their findings were unsuccessful Hankins et al. (1981); McCulloch et al. (1981); Taylor et al. (1981). In searches for radio pulses associated with gamma-ray bursts, Cortiglioni et al. (1981), Inzani et al. (1982) and Amy et al. (1989) detected some dispersed radio pulses, but found no convincing associations with gamma-ray burst sources. Vaughan & Large (1989) also conducted an unsuccessful search for radio pulses from the soft gamma-ray repeater 0526$``$66. More recently, Nice (1999) searched for radio pulses along 68 deg2 of the Galactic plane at 430 MHz. This search resulted in the detection of individual pulses from 5 known pulsars and the discovery of one new pulsar which was previously missed in a standard periodicity search Nice et al. (1995). This pulsar (J1918+08) does not emit giant pulses111We define giant pulses as those comprising a long tail on the overall pulse amplitude distribution; for the Crab pulsar and the millisecond pulsars B1937+21 and B1821-24, these distributions are power-law in form. but is a normal, slow pulsar which fortuitously emitted one strong pulse during the search observations.

The modest success of these searches for transient radio signals has been largely due to limited sensitivity and sky coverage and, most importantly, to the difficulty in discriminating between signals of astrophysical origin and RFI. Array instruments such as the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) and the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) will be a vast improvement over single-dish systems in all of these areas. With these arrays in the developmental stages, it is timely to revisit searches for single pulses. The outline of this paper is as follows. In §2, we discuss the objects that might be sources of transient radio signals. In §3, we describe single-pulse search algorithms and present example results for giant-pulse emitting pulsars. We discuss dispersion and pulse broadening from scattering, their effects on searches for single pulses, and ways to optimize searches in the presence of these effects. In §4, the effects of scintillations on source detection are outlined. As the increasing prominence of RFI makes it difficult to identify transient pulses, we briefly discuss RFI issues in §5. Conclusions and a look to the future, especially for RFI mitigation, are offered in §6. In Paper II (McLaughlin & Cordes 2003), we explicitly discuss giant pulses from Galactic pulsars and our attempts to detect similar pulses from nearby galaxies. In that paper we also outline the conditions required for single-pulse searches to be more effective than periodicity searches for pulsars.

## 2 Sources of Fast Radio Transients

While all pulsars show pulse-to-pulse intensity variations Hesse & Wielebinski (1974), some pulsars have been found to emit so-called ‘giant’ pulses, pulses with strengths 100 or even 1000 times the mean pulse intensity. The Crab (PSR B0531+21) was the first pulsar found to exhibit this phenomenon. In one hour of observation, the largest measured peak pulse flux of the Crab is roughly $``$ 105 Jy at 430 MHz for a duration of roughly 100 $`\mu `$s Hankins & Rickett (1975), corresponding to an implied brightness temperature of 1031 K. Recently, pulses with flux $``$ $`10^3`$ Jy at 5 GHz for a duration of only 2 ns have been detected from the Crab Hankins (2003). These ‘nano-giant’ pulses imply brightness temperatures of 1038 K, by far the most luminous emission from any astronomical object. For many years, this phenomenon was thought to be uniquely characteristic of the Crab. However, giant pulses have since been detected from the millisecond pulsars PSR B1937+21 and PSR B1821$``$24. From both of these pulsars, the largest measured peak pulse flux in one hour is $``$ 103 Jy at 430 MHz Cognard et al. (1996); Romani & Johnston (2001). Recently, giant pulses have been detected from the Crab-like pulsar in the Large Magellanic Cloud, PSR B0540-69 (Johnston & Romani, 2003).

Although pulsars may be the most well-studied transient radio sources, they are by no means the only ones. In Figure 2, we compare the brightness temperatures of giant pulses with those from other astrophysical sources of radio pulses. These sources include brown dwarfs such as BD LP944$``$20, from which radio flares have recently been detected Berger et al. (2001), and Jupiter, which has long been known to emit radio flares at decameter wavelengths Aubier et al. (2000); Lecacheux et al. (1998). Type II and Type III solar bursts are regularly detected at radio frequencies of tens of MHz Mann et al. (1996); Poquerusse et al. (1988). Radio flares from active stars such as UV Ceti and AD Leo are observed at frequencies $`1`$ GHz Jackson et al. (1989). The emission from OH masers can vary on timescales of hundreds of seconds and be detected as long-duration radio bursts Cohen & Brebner (1985); Yudaeva (1986). Active galactic nuclei (AGN) outbursts, likely due to propagation of shocks in relativistic jets, are observed at millimeter and centimeter wavelengths Aller et al. (1985); Lainela (1994). Intraday variability (IDV) of other extragalactic sources, most likely caused by interstellar scintillation, could also be detectable in searches for radio transients Kedziora-Chudczer et al. (2001). Gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows are also modulated by refractive, and possibly diffractive, scintillation Goodman (1997). Radio bursts from supernovae, as proposed by Colgate (1971) and detected from supernova 1987a Turtle et al. (1987), bursts from the explosions of primordial black holes Phinney & Taylor (1979), and emission from inspiraling neutron stars (Hansen & Lyutikov 2000) could also be sources of fast radio transients. Finally, searches for radio transients could detect scintillation-modulated signals from extraterrestrial intelligent civilizations Cordes et al. (1997).

## 3 Single-Pulse Search Methodology

In this section, we describe general issues that must be considered in designing and carrying out any search for transient radio signals. We first explore the various factors influencing the intensities, shapes and widths of detected radio pulses. We then outline the steps of a search for dispersed radio pulses, including dedispersion, matched filtering, thresholding and diagnostics to determine the reality of detected signals. Lastly, we describe the effects that interstellar scattering and scintillation have on searches for fast radio transients and how to optimize searches in the presence of these effects.

### 3.1 Signal Model

An appropriate model222 This model is only approximate. Receiver noise is strictly additive only in the limit of large signal-to-noise ratio and large time-bandwidth product. Also, the diffractive modulation $`g_\mathrm{d}`$ can be factored as shown only if it is constant over the measurement bandwidth. One may consider channelized signals for which this is true, in which case the total intensity will be the sum over channels of intensities like those given in the model. We also point out that when the diffractive scintillation modulation $`g_\mathrm{d}`$ is important (i.e. not quenched by bandwidth smoothing) multipath-induced pulse smearing is likely to be negligible and vice versa. for the measured intensity from a broadband source is

$`I(t)`$ $`=`$ $`g_\mathrm{r}g_\mathrm{d}S(t)h_{\mathrm{DM}}(t)h_\mathrm{d}(t)h_{\mathrm{Rx}}(t)+N(t),`$ (1)
where the source contribution, $`S(t)`$, is modulated by factors $`g_\mathrm{r}`$ and $`g_\mathrm{d}`$ that correspond to refractive and diffractive scintillation modulations (see below) while also being convolved (denoted by the asterisks) with several factors that account for dispersion smearing, $`h_{\mathrm{DM}}(t)`$, pulse-broadening from multipath propagation, $`h_\mathrm{d}(t)`$, and averaging in the receiver and data acquisition system, $`h_{\mathrm{Rx}}(t)`$. Additive receiver noise is represented by $`N(t)`$. To a large extent, dispersion smearing associated with $`h_{\mathrm{DM}}(t)`$ can be deconvolved from the signal. However, there can be residual dedispersion smearing if the exact value of dispersion measure (DM) is not used, as we discuss below. For large path lengths through the Galaxy and observations at low frequencies, pulse broadening from scattering can dominate the shape of the measured pulse, in which case optimal detection entails usage of an asymmetric matched filter given by the appropriate pulse broadening function, $`h_\mathrm{d}(t)`$. Below, we discuss the detection of broadband pulses with respect to these various factors.

For narrowband signals, such as those that are hypothesized from extraterrestrial civilizations, the signal model in Eq. 1 is applicable, though $`S(t)`$ now must be viewed as a time modulation that also depends on radio frequency. The interplay of propagation effects with the intrinsic properties of the signal need to be considered for particular cases. In this paper we address broadband pulses explicitly and simply state that many of our conclusions will also apply to modulated, narrowband signals. The effects of scintillations in particular are discussed in Cordes & Lazio (1991) and Cordes, Lazio & Sagan (1997).

### 3.2 Effective Time Resolution

The shape of a detected radio pulse is influenced by a variety of factors. A delta-function pulse emitted at the source will be detected with finite width due to a combination of propagation effects and signal-processing response times. The effective time resolution for a pulse is approximately the quadratic sum of the dispersion smearing, the dedispersion error, the receiver filter response time and scattering smearing, so that

$`\mathrm{\Delta }t=\left[\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\mathrm{DM}}^2+\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\delta \mathrm{DM}}^2+\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\mathrm{\Delta }\nu }^2+\tau _d^2\right]^{1/2}.`$ (2)
The first term, the frequency-dependent smearing due to dispersion, is equal to

$`\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\mathrm{DM}}=8.3\mu \mathrm{s}\mathrm{DM}\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _{\mathrm{MHz}}\nu _{\mathrm{GHz}}^3`$ (3)
for a bandwidth $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _{\mathrm{MHz}}`$, an observing frequency $`\nu _{\mathrm{GHz}}`$ and a dispersion measure DM, where DM is defined as the column density along the line of sight (LOS) to a source (i.e. DM = $`_0^\mathrm{D}n_e(l)dl`$, where $`n_e`$ is the electron density and D is the distance to the source) and has units of pc cm-3. Optimal detection requires that dispersion smearing be removed from the measured signal by compensating time delays or, equivalently, unwrapping phases of the Fourier components. For any such ‘dedispersion’ technique, using a value for DM that is in error by an amount $`\delta \mathrm{DM}`$ yields smearing of

$`\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\delta \mathrm{DM}}=\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\mathrm{DM}}(\delta \mathrm{DM}/\mathrm{DM}).`$ (4)
The third term, the filter response of an individual frequency channel, is

$$\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\mathrm{\Delta }\nu }(\mathrm{\Delta }\nu )^1=(\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _{\mathrm{MHz}})^1\mu \mathrm{s}.$$
(5)
Finally, the fourth term, $`\tau _d`$, is the broadening due to multipath scattering, which has the effect of convolving the intrinsic pulse profile with a function approximately exponential in form and having a characteristic time scale $`\tau _d`$. Though it is highly dependent on direction and distance, it may be estimated approximately as a statistical function of DM. The mean of this dependence is given by the empirical fit (Cordes & Lazio 2002)

$`\mathrm{log}\tau _d=3.72+0.411\mathrm{log}\mathrm{DM}+0.937(\mathrm{log}\mathrm{DM})^2`$
$`4.4\mathrm{log}\nu _{\mathrm{GHz}}\mu s,`$ (6)
with scatter about the mean fit of $`\sigma _{\mathrm{log}\tau _d}0.65`$. The coefficient 4.4 in the last term is based on the assumption of a Kolmogorov spectrum for the scattering irregularities. For some lines of sight the scaling with frequency may be weaker (e.g. Löhmer et al. 2001), implying a coefficient closer to 4.0. In Figure 3.2 we illustrate some typical ISS parameters for pulsars. We further discuss pulse broadening along with interstellar scintillation modulations in §4, §4.3 and in the Appendix.

### 3.3 Dedispersion

While the effects of scattering cannot be removed with hardware or software, the effects of interstellar dispersion can be largely or completely corrected for. The degree to which this can be done depends on the method of dedispersion used. We discuss two methods of dedispersion and compare the time resolutions achievable with each.

#### 3.3.1 Post-Detection Dedispersion

Post-detection dedispersion operates on ‘detected’ signals, or signals which are intensity-like quantities because a squaring operation has taken place after the signal has been channelized in a spectrometer. Typically, these data are acquired using an analog or digital multi-channel spectrometer, or ‘filterbank’, in which the bandpass is divided into a number of frequency channels and recorded at short time intervals after detection. Post-detection dedispersion involves shifting the signal from each frequency channel by the predicted dispersive delay for a particular DM. This delay,

$`t_{\mathrm{DM}}=4.2\times 10^3\mathrm{DM}\nu _{\mathrm{GHz}}^2\mu s,`$ (7)
is consistent with the differential form of Eq. 3.

The degree to which dispersion can be removed (i.e. the minimum time resolution for this method of dedispersion) is determined by the competing effects of $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\mathrm{DM}}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\mathrm{\Delta }\nu }`$, both of which depend on the channel bandwidth. The optimal channel bandwidth corresponds to equality of the terms $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\mathrm{DM}}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\mathrm{\Delta }\nu }`$ and is therefore $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _{\mathrm{MHz}}=\left(\nu _{\mathrm{GHz}}^3/8.3\mathrm{DM}\right)^{1/2}`$. Assuming DM is known exactly (i.e. $`\delta \mathrm{DM}=0`$), the minimum time resolution achievable through this method of dedispersion becomes

$`\mathrm{\Delta }t_0`$ $`=`$ $`\left[2(\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\mathrm{DM}}^{}{}_{\mathrm{min}}{}^{})^2+\tau _d^2\right]^{1/2}`$ (8)
where

$`\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\mathrm{DM}}^{}{}_{\mathrm{min}}{}^{}`$ $``$ $`\left(8.3\mathrm{DM}\nu _{\mathrm{GHz}}^3\right)^{1/2}\mu s`$ (9)
is the minimum dispersion smearing.

#### 3.3.2 Coherent Dedispersion

Coherent, or pre-detection, dedispersion, operates on signals proportional to the electric field selected by the receiver system, which contains phase information. These data are typically acquired by bandpass filtering signal voltages and shifting them to zero frequency (i.e. ‘baseband mixing’). Baseband signals are sampled according to the Nyquist criterion applied to the total bandwidth. Coherent dedispersion is being used more commonly as recording bandwidths and computer power have grown. It involves removal of the dispersive phase rotation of the (complex) electric field through a deconvolution procedure. The function to be deconvolved is approximately in the form of a ‘chirp’ function having duration equal to the dispersion time across the total bandwidth, given by Eq. 3. This is often done using Fourier transforms (as pioneered by Hankins in 1971) and has also been implemented using finite-impulse response, time-domain filtering (e.g. Backer et al. 1997). If the source’s DM is known exactly, then the phase perturbation can be removed exactly and $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\mathrm{DM}}=0`$. The minimum time resolution achievable is then simply

$`\mathrm{\Delta }t_0=\left[\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\mathrm{\Delta }\nu }^2+\tau _d^2\right]^{1/2}.`$ (10)
#### 3.3.3 Trial Dispersion Measures

In practice, the DM is not usually known in searches for radio transients. Therefore, for either method of dedispersion, a range of trial DMs must be used to dedisperse the data. The maximum DM searched can be estimated by using a model for the Galactic electron density in the direction of the source (e.g. Cordes & Lazio 2002). Because there are significant model uncertainties owing to unmodeled electron density structures in the ISM, it is wise to search to DM values higher than predicted by the model. The spacing of trial DMs is determined by the maximum smearing one is willing to accept in the final dedispersed time series. This residual dispersion smearing is given by $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\delta \mathrm{DM}}`$, calculated using Eq. 3-4 with $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _{\mathrm{MHz}}`$ as the total bandwidth. The spacing of DM values can be calculated by letting the error from $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\delta \mathrm{DM}}`$ be a fraction $`ϵ`$ of the total error calculated from Eq. 2. Given that $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\delta \mathrm{DM}}=(\delta \mathrm{DM}/\mathrm{DM})\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\mathrm{DM}}`$ the required spacing of DM values in the grid is

$`\delta \mathrm{DM}/\mathrm{DM}={\displaystyle \frac{ϵ\mathrm{\Delta }t}{\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\mathrm{DM}}}}`$ (11)
where, for optimal resolution, $`\mathrm{\Delta }t\mathrm{\Delta }t_0`$. Note that as the DM increases, both $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\mathrm{DM}}`$ and $`\tau _d`$ increase, making the optimal spacing between trial DMs greater at higher DMs.

We explore the effect that an incorrect DM has on an individual pulse’s amplitude. For a rectangular bandpass function and for a Gaussian-shaped pulse with width $`W`$ (FWHM) in milliseconds, the ratio of measured peak flux $`S(\delta \mathrm{DM})`$ to true peak flux $`S`$ for a DM error $`\delta \mathrm{DM}`$ is

$`{\displaystyle \frac{S(\delta \mathrm{DM})}{S}}={\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{\pi }}{2}}\zeta ^1\mathrm{erf}\zeta `$ (12)
where

$`\zeta =6.91\times 10^3\delta \mathrm{DM}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _{\mathrm{MHz}}}{W_{\mathrm{ms}}\nu _{\mathrm{GHz}}^3}}.`$ (13)
Figures 3.3.3 and 3.3.3 illustrate the dependence of $`S(\delta \mathrm{DM})/S`$ on these quantities. Figure 3.3.3 implies a FWHM for $`S(\delta \mathrm{DM})/S`$ vs $`\zeta `$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\zeta 3.5`$, which corresponds to an equivalent range in DM,

$`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{DM}506{\displaystyle \frac{W_{\mathrm{ms}}\nu _{\mathrm{GHz}}^3}{\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _{\mathrm{MHz}}}}.`$ (14)
### 3.4 Matched Filtering

After dedispersion, each dedispersed time series, or ‘DM channel’, must be searched individually for pulses with amplitudes above some signal-to-noise (S/N) threshold. This search process is simply an exercise in matched filtering, with the highest detected S/N achieved when the effective sampling time of the time series is equal to the detected width of the pulse. Since the intrinsic widths of signals are typically unknown, as are the contributions to the width from dispersion and scattering, a large parameter space must be searched. This is most easily done by ‘smoothing’ time series by adding adjacent samples iteratively. In the absence of knowledge about the true pulse shape and width, the smoothing approach is a straight-forward and efficient approximation to optimal detection.

To explore the S/Ns achievable through optimal matched filtering, first consider a pulse whose intrinsic amplitude and width are $`S_i`$ and $`W_i`$, respectively, in the absence of extrinsic broadening effects. The intrinsic pulse area $`A_iS_iW_i`$. Optimal detection implies a signal to noise ratio

$`(S/N)_i={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sigma \sqrt{W_n}}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{A_i}{\sqrt{W_i}}}\right),`$ (15)
where $`\sigma `$ is the rms noise in the time series (before any smoothing) and $`W_n`$ is the correlation time for the noise. We assume that $`W_iW_n`$. For the system noise $`S_{\mathrm{sys}}`$ expressed as a flux density in Jansky units, the rms radiometer noise is $`\sigma =S_{\mathrm{sys}}/(N_{\mathrm{pol}}\mathrm{\Delta }\nu W_n)^{1/2}`$, where $`N_{\mathrm{pol}}`$ is the number of polarizations summed and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu `$ is the total bandwidth, so that S/N in the case of optimal detection is independent of $`W_n`$. As can be seen, $`S/NA_i/\sqrt{W_i}`$ so, for fixed pulse area, a narrower pulse yields larger $`S/N`$. However, a low-amplitude, broad pulse is more easily detectable than a sharp narrow pulse if its area is sufficiently larger.

Now consider pulses that are broadened extrinsically by the interstellar and instrumental effects discussed earlier and/or by pulse smearing from orbital motion. All of these broadening effects conserve pulse area. For heavily scattered pulses, the measured shape will be dominated by the pulse broadening function, which is approximately a one-sided exponential in form. The detailed shape is a function of the wavenumber spectrum and spatial distribution of the scattering medium (Williamson 1972; Lambert & Rickett 1999). For such cases, the appropriate matched filter would be the shape of the pulse broadening function. Pulse smearing from orbital motion is negligible for known radio pulsar binaries (i.e. orbital periods $``$ 1 hr) and for intrinsic pulse durations of seconds or less. However, for very short-period binaries, such as two neutron stars undergoing inspiral from gravitational radiation, and for very long-duration pulses, orbital motion may be important in single pulse detection. If such broadening results in a net pulse width $`W_b`$, then matched filtering yields

$`(S/N)_b=(S/N)_i\left({\displaystyle \frac{W_i}{W_b}}\right)^{1/2}.`$ (16)
### 3.5 Thresholding

To determine a reasonable threshold for a search for single pulses, we assume that the statistics are Gaussian in the absence of any signal, either celestial or RFI (a good assumption when the time-bandwidth product $``$ 5). The expected number of candidate pulses above threshold from radiometer noise alone in a single DM channel in a time series of length $`N`$ is

$$N(>\mathrm{threshold})=NP_t\underset{j=0}{\overset{j_{\mathrm{max}}}{}}2^j2NP_t,$$
(17)
where $`P_t`$ is the integrated Gaussian probability of measuring a pulse above threshold, and $`j_{max}`$ is the number of times a time series is smoothed and decimated. The approximate equality holds for $`j_{\mathrm{max}}1`$. The threshold can be chosen based on how many ‘false alarms’ (i.e. threshold crossings caused solely by radiometer noise) one is willing to accept. In reality, however, the measured statistics are not Gaussian due to the presence of RFI and the level of RFI often determines the threshold used.

Once pulses above threshold are recorded, the mean and rms can be recalculated with these ‘first-pass’ strongest pulses removed and the search for pulses above threshold is repeated. This iterative procedure keeps the mean and rms from being biased by a few very strong pulses. To allow for any long-term level changes, small ($``$ seconds) subsets of the original data set should be searched individually.

### 3.6 Diagnostics

Once all smoothed, dedispersed time series have been searched for pulses above threshold, the output must be examined to determine whether these pulses are of astrophysical origin. This can be done by creating diagnostic plots like those shown in Figures 3.6 and 3.6, which show example search output333 Similar plots for a number of pulsars can be found at http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/$``$mclaughl/single and at http://www.astro.cornell.edu/$``$cordes.   for the giant-pulse emitting pulsars PSR B0531+21 and PSR B1937+21. While the examples here are from a search for single pulses from pulsars, the analysis method is applicable to searches for any transient radio signals.

The data for PSR B0531+21 were taken at the Arecibo Observatory at a frequency of 2330 MHz across a 100 MHz bandpass with the Wideband Arecibo Pulsar Processor (WAPP, `http://www.naic.edu/~wapp/`) with 64 frequency channels and 32 $`\mu `$s sampling. The data for PSR B1937+21 were taken at a frequency of 430 MHz across a 10-MHz bandpass with the Arecibo Observatory Fourier Transform Machine (AOFTM, `http://www.naic.edu/~aoftm/`), which has 1024 frequency channels and 102.4 $`\mu `$s sampling. While the WAPP uses 16-bit sampling, the AOFTM uses two-bit sampling, which will limit the measured dynamic range of giant pulses.

The data for both pulsars were dedispersed across a range of trial DMs using the post-detection method as described in §3.3. As discussed, DM channels are spaced more coarsely at higher DMs. A single-pulse search was carried out as described in §3.4. Figures 3.6 and 3.6 each show histograms of S/N and of DM, a scatter plot of S/N and DM, and a time series of events above a threshold (S/N $`>5`$ and 4, respectively, for B0531+21 and B1937+21). In the absence of any signal (celestial or RFI), we expect the distribution of S/Ns to be Gaussian. For a time series with $`N`$ samples and $`N_{\mathrm{DM}}`$ trial values of DM, the number of detections per bin of size $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ in S/N is

$`\mathrm{\Delta }N_p2NN_{\mathrm{DM}}\mathrm{\Delta }f(\mathrm{S}/\mathrm{N}),`$ (18)
where $`f(\mathrm{S}/\mathrm{N})`$ is a Gaussian probability density function with unit variance. The dashed lines in the upper left panels of Figures 3.6-3.6 are plots of $`\mathrm{\Delta }N_p`$ for the two cases.

The S/N histograms for both pulsars clearly deviate from a Gaussian distribution at high values of S/N. In the absence of signal, we also expect the DM distribution of pulses to be flat, in the mean, with fluctuations obeying Poisson statistics. The DM distributions clearly deviate from this form, showing well-defined peaks at the dispersion measures of the pulsars. From Eq. 17, the expected number of pulses above threshold due to radiometer noise alone $``$ 12 and 260 for the data in Figures 3.6 and 3.6, respectively. The baseline (i.e. in DM channels other than that of the pulsar) number of pulses above threshold for PSR B0531+21 is higher than this number because, as discussed in §3.3.3, strong, high-frequency pulses may be detected across a broad range of DM channels. The baseline number of pulses for the lower frequency observation of PSR B1937+21 is similar to that predicted for Gaussian noise, aside from a peak at zero DM due to RFI. The lower halves of Figures 3.6 and 3.6 show the strongest individual pulses plotted vs. DM and time, with the size of the circle proportional to S/N. This plot is complementary to the DM histogram; sources which emit many weak pulses may be detected in the DM histogram but may not appear in the lower plot while sources which emit only a few strong pulses may do the opposite.

## 4 Interstellar Scattering and Scintillation

In this section, we describe the basic scattering and scintillation phenomena that are relevant to the detection and identification of transient celestial signals. The two main effects are pulse broadening and intensity scintillations. Both affect the detectability of transient signals. Pulse broadening always decreases S/N while scintillation can increase or decrease S/N. In addition, these effects can signify whether a given candidate transient is truly celestial.

The degree of scattering is strongly frequency, direction, and distance dependent. Moreover, source sizes strongly influence the fractional intensity modulation of scintillation. Sources compact enough to emit fast transients will generally show scintillations at centimeter (and longer) wavelengths. In the following, we describe quantitative aspects of scattering and scintillation, observing regimes and optimal detection strategies.

### 4.1 Basic Phenomena

Multipath scattering of radiation from electron-density variations in the ISM produces the pulse-broadening effect discussed in §3.2. It also produces scintillations that modulate the measured intensity. Diffractive interstellar scintillations (DISS), which occur in the so-called strong scattering regime, produce intensity variations with characteristic frequency scales $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _\mathrm{d}\nu `$. DISS is caused by small-scale irregularities in the interstellar plasma and, for observations at meter wavelengths, has typical time and frequency scales of order minutes and MHz, with large variations that depend on DM, frequency and direction. Longer term, relatively broadband intensity variations of timescales of days to months are caused by refractive interstellar scintillations (RISS), associated with larger-scale irregularities than those responsible for DISS. In the strong scattering regime, DISS and RISS are distinct phenomena. The intensity modulation from DISS, $`g_\mathrm{d}`$, is a random variable with one-sided exponential statistics and 100% fractional variation for an intrinsically pointlike source. The modulation from RISS, $`g_\mathrm{r}`$, has a more symmetric distribution with smaller rms variation of a few tens of percent. Reviews of the phenomena may be found in Rickett (1990) and Narayan (1992). In weak scattering, DISS and RISS merge to produce fractional intensity variations of less than unity. The transition from strong to weak scattering depends strongly on direction. For lines of sight looking out of the Galactic plane, it is typically $``$ 5 GHz, but for the Galactic center the transition is higher than 100 GHz.

### 4.2 Source Size Requirements and Coherence

Sources must be compact for DISS and RISS to occur. In the strong scattering regime, a point source will be broadened to a size $`\theta _d`$ that is typically in the range of 1 mas to 1 arcsec at 1 GHz. The resultant diffraction pattern at an observer’s location has spatial scale $`\mathrm{}_d\lambda /\theta _d`$, where $`\lambda `$ is the wavelength. By reciprocity, sources with spatial extents larger than $`\mathrm{}_d`$ will diminish the fractional modulation of DISS (apart from ‘leveraging’ effects associated with the scattering region being closer to the source or to the observer, which we discuss below). We define the isoplanatic angular size as $`\theta _{\mathrm{iso}}\mathrm{}_d/D\lambda /D\theta _d`$, where $`D`$ is the distance to the source and the proportionality constant depends on the location and depth of the scattering region along the line of sight. For RISS, the isoplanatic scale $`\mathrm{}_rD\theta _d`$ and the isoplanatic angular size is $`\theta _{\mathrm{iso}}\theta _d`$. At 1 GHz, and for path lengths through the ISM $``$ 1 kpc, the isoplanatic angular scale $`\theta _{\mathrm{iso}}`$ $`10^7`$ arc sec for DISS and $`10^3`$ arc sec for RISS, though with large variations.

Transient sources producing short-duration signals are compact enough to satisfy these criteria in some cases. Given the light-travel size for a source at 1 kpc, signals shorter than 50 ms will show fully-modulated DISS while signals shorter than 500 s will show fully-modulated RISS. Relativistic motions, of course, will alter these estimates, by increasing the light-travel source size by a Doppler factor $`D_\gamma =1/\gamma (1\beta \mathrm{cos}\theta )2\gamma `$ for $`\gamma 1`$ (where $`\gamma `$ is the Lorentz factor of bulk motion in the source). The transverse size is relevant for scintillation quenching, however, and is related to the light-travel size in a model-dependent way.

For longer path lengths or larger scattering strengths, the isoplanatic angle for DISS becomes smaller while that for RISS becomes larger. For an extragalactic source, the greater distance increases the allowed signal durations while, if viewed at Galactic latitudes $`10^{}`$ and for similar host galaxy inclinations, the scattering angular size ($`\theta _d`$) remains small.

As is well known, fast transients necessarily arise from coherent emission if the measured transient signature is intrinsic and implies a brightness temperature in excess of physically plausible limits. Using the same light-travel size as before, the brightness temperature is

$`T_b10^{14.8}KS_{\mathrm{mJy}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{D_{\mathrm{kpc}}}{\nu _{\mathrm{GHz}}\mathrm{\Delta }t}}\right)^2;`$ (19)
$`S_{\mathrm{mJy}}`$ is the flux density in mJy and $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ is the signal duration. Relativistic motion decreases the coefficient by a factor $`1/4\gamma ^2`$ for $`\gamma 1`$. Sources compact enough to show DISS (i.e. $`\mathrm{\Delta }t50`$ ms for $`\gamma 1`$) have $`T_b10^{17.4}K`$ for other parameters held fixed in Eq. 19. This is too large to be associated with incoherent processes.

### 4.3 Expected Timescales and Bandwidths

Both DISS and pulse broadening are well established for Galactic pulsars. RISS has been identified in observations of AGNs and masers as well as pulsars. For a given combination of line of sight and frequency, DISS and pulse broadening are typically mutually exclusive in pulsars, because when the pulse broadening is large enough to be identified, the scintillation bandwidth is too small to be measured, as indicated by values plotted in Figure 3.2. Exceptions occur, of course, because the identification of pulse broadening is a function of intrinsic pulse width.

Quantitatively, the pulse broadening time $`\tau _d`$ and the scintillation bandwidth $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _\mathrm{d}`$ are reciprocally related by $`2\pi \tau _d\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _\mathrm{d}=C_1`$ (e.g. Cordes & Rickett 1998). For a uniform medium with Kolmogorov fluctuations, $`C_1=1.16`$. Otherwise, $`C_1`$ $``$ 1, except for scattering in thin screens near the source or observer. For typical pulsar pulses, pulse broadening is manifest when $`\tau _d1`$ ms, in which case the scintillation bandwidth is too small to be resolved (for typical source flux densities and spectrometer resolutions). Exceptions to this are the Crab pulsar’s giant pulses, which show structure in the range of a few nanoseconds to a few microseconds (Hankins 2003). These narrow pulses allow measurement of much smaller pulse broadening times, corresponding to measurable scintillation bandwidths. If other sources of very narrow pulses exist (e.g. $`W1`$ ms), then scintillation frequency structure will be measureable for them as well.

While the pulse broadening timescale and DISS bandwidth depend on the distribution of scattering material along the line of sight, the DISS timescale $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_\mathrm{d}`$ also depends on the source’s velocity. The scintillation velocity, $`V_{\mathrm{ISS}}`$, is the speed of the ISS diffraction pattern across the LOS and determines the scintillation timescale as

$`\mathrm{\Delta }t_\mathrm{d}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}_d}{V_{\mathrm{ISS}}}}=W_1{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}_d}{V_{\mathrm{s}}^{}{}_{}{}^{}}}={\displaystyle \frac{W_2}{\nu V_{\mathrm{s}}^{}{}_{}{}^{}}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{cD\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _\mathrm{d}}{4\pi C_1}}\right)^{1/2},`$ (20)
where $`V_{\mathrm{s}}^{}{}_{}{}^{}`$ is the source velocity and $`W_{1,2}`$ are weighting factors that take into account the location of scattering material along the LOS (c.f. Cordes & Rickett 1998, Eq. 4, 9, 17 and 23). The final equality in Eq. 20 follows by relating the spatial scale $`\mathrm{}_d`$ to the scintillation bandwidth $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _\mathrm{d}`$ and other quantities by using $`\mathrm{}_d=\lambda /\theta _d`$ (c.f. §4.2) along with the proportionality $`\tau _dD\theta _d^2/2c`$ and the equation relating $`\tau _d`$ to $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _\mathrm{d}`$. For nominal values, and assuming a Kolmogorov spectrum for the scattering irregularities, the scintillation timescale is

$`\mathrm{\Delta }t_\mathrm{d}=252sW_2(cD_{\mathrm{kpc}}\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _{\mathrm{d}}^{}{}_{,\mathrm{MHz}}{}^{})^{1/2}(\nu _{\mathrm{GHz}}V_{\mathrm{s}}^{}{}_{}{}^{}{}_{,100}{}^{})^1,`$ (21)
where $`V_{\mathrm{s}}^{}{}_{}{}^{}{}_{,100}{}^{}=V_{\mathrm{s}}^{}{}_{}{}^{}/(100\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1)`$ and $`W_2=1`$ for a uniform medium. Pulsars have 3D velocities that average $`400`$ km s-1 (e.g. Cordes & Chernoff 1998), so their scintillation timescales can be quite short. Other Galactic sources may be slower and would accordingly have longer scintillation timescales. Note that since $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _\mathrm{d}\nu ^{4.4}`$ for a Kolmogorov wavenumber spectrum for the electron-density irregularities, $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_\mathrm{d}\nu ^{1.2}`$ in the strong-scattering regime. In weak scattering the characteristic scintillation bandwidth $`\nu `$ and the level of modulation becomes less. Figure 4.3 shows the scintillation time scale for known pulsars along with estimates based on Eq. 21 for transverse velocities of 10, 100 and $`10^3`$ km s-1.

### 4.4 Comparison of Galactic and Extragalactic Source Scintillations

In some circumstances, the scintillations of fast radio transient sources can serve as a ‘reality check’ on the astrophysical nature of the emission, based on the direction, distance and frequency of observation. In order to estimate the DISS and pulse broadening properties of extragalactic transient sources, we have developed the formalism in the Appendix. As shown there, we expect scintillation timescales for extragalactic sources to be about one-third as much as for Galactic sources in the same direction. We also find that the pulse broadening time for an extragalactic source will be approximately six times larger than for a Galactic source in the same direction. Similarly, scintillation bandwidths for extragalactic sources will be about six times smaller.

### 4.5 Optimal Observing Strategy in the Strong Scattering Regime

DISS in the strong scattering regime can both help and hinder detection of transient radio signals. Signals too weak to be detected without the scattering medium may be modulated above the detection threshold while stronger signals that are nominally above the threshold can be modulated below. As shown in Cordes & Lazio (1991), in the strong scattering regime (i.e. distances $``$ 1 kpc at $``$ 1 GHz), multiple observations of a given target comprise a strategy that can be superior to single observations even when the total time per target is held fixed. The requirements for favoring this strategy are that (a) the source size is much smaller than the isoplanatic size and (b) that there is no bandwidth averaging of the DISS frequency structure.

We now define several observational regimes. In radio transient searches, it is useful to consider the dynamic spectrum (intensity as a function of time and frequency) as the analyzable data unit. We follow Cordes & Lazio (1991), who define the number of independent scintillation fluctuations (‘scintles’) contained in a frequency-time resolution element of size $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu \times \mathrm{\Delta }t`$ as

$`N_{\mathrm{ISS}}`$ $`=`$ $`N_tN_\nu ,`$ (22)
$`N_t`$ $``$ $`1+\eta \mathrm{\Delta }t/\mathrm{\Delta }t_\mathrm{d},`$ (23)
$`N_\nu `$ $``$ $`1+\eta \mathrm{\Delta }\nu /\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _\mathrm{d},`$ (24)
where $`\eta 0.10.2`$ is a ‘filling’ constant. Given the large variation in scintillation parameters (c.f. Figure 3.2 and Eq. 21), $`N_{\mathrm{ISS}}`$ varies by orders of magnitude as a function of frequency and DM. For fast transients, we expect $`\mathrm{\Delta }t\mathrm{\Delta }t_\mathrm{d}`$, so that $`N_t=1`$. However, if differential dispersive arrival times span a long time, which will be true for large DM or low frequencies, the dedispersed signal may span one or more independent ‘scintles’ and $`N_t>1`$. For broadband transients, optimal detection requires integration over frequency (with implied dedispersion), in which case it may also be true that $`N_\nu 1`$. Narrowband transients, such as may be expected from masers and from signals from extraterrestrial intelligence, are likely to have $`N_\nu =1`$, except for long lines of sight through the inner Galaxy combined with observations at low frequencies, for which $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _\mathrm{d}`$ can be less than 1 Hz.

Three scintillation regimes may be identified in terms of $`N_{\mathrm{ISS}}`$. We assume that the strong scattering regime applies and that the source size is much smaller than the isoplanatic angular size:

1. $`N_{\mathrm{ISS}}=1`$: The measured signal will be 100% modulated and the intensities will be exponentially distributed.
2. $`1N_{\mathrm{ISS}}100`$: The scintillations will be less than 100% modulated and will have a $`\chi ^2`$ distribution with $`2N_{\mathrm{ISS}}`$ degrees of freedom. For $`N_{\mathrm{ISS}}5`$, the distribution is well described as a Gaussian function. Fast transients with $`N_t=1`$ in this regime have multiple scintles across the frequency range $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu `$. Each scintle has an amplitude described by the exponential distribution. Before integrating over frequency, the optimal S/N may result by weighting the individual amplitudes to favor the strong scintles.
3. $`N_{\mathrm{ISS}}100`$: The DISS modulation of the combined signal (after integrating over time and frequency) $`10`$%.

In the first regime, where the signal is fully modulated, an optimization strategy that maximizes the detectability of a source with respect to DISS comprises multiple observations. In a single observation, it is more likely that the signal is modulated below its mean (probability = $`1e^1`$) than above it. Less frequently, a large boost in signal strength is expected because the modulation has an exponential distribution. If the total amount of telescope time is fixed and divided into $`N`$ subobservations separated by more than a characteristic scintillation time, there is an optimal, finite value of $`N`$. For an intrinsically steady source, the optimal number of trials $`3`$ maximizes the probability that at least one detection is made. For transient sources, the optimization also depends on the (unknown) intrinsic distribution of emitted amplitudes. For infrequent or single-instance transients, DISS in the first regime will on average degrade the detectability of a given source. However, across a population of sources the DISS will aid detection in $`e^1`$ of the cases and hinder detection in the remainder.

## 5 Radio Frequency Interference

Radio frequency interference is a growing problem for radio astronomy in general and for the detection of transient signals in particular. Considerable work is now being done on identifying and mitigating RFI in a number of ways. A situation similar to pulse detection in the time domain is the detection of narrow spectral lines. As discussed by Horowitz & Sagan (1993), RFI from artificial, terrestrial sources can be identified, in part, by requiring candidate signals to conform to what is expected from celestial signals. For narrow spectral lines, one expects variable Doppler shifts in accordance with Earth’s spin and orbital motion. As shown by Horowitz & Sagan, however, even this requirement allows rare RFI to satisfy basic requirements that a real, celestial signal must satisfy. For time domain searches, such as those we have focused on here, RFI can mimic the dispersive arrival times of pulses in instances where the RFI is a swept-frequency signal. Thus, while filters based on anticipated properties of celestial signals are necessary elements of transient searches, they are not sufficient for providing candidate detections that are devoid of false positive detecions.

To identify real celestial transients while rejecting RFI, searches using single pixel systems must rely on application of tests for properties that real, celestial signals must have, including Doppler shifts and dispersive arrival times, and also any repeatability of the transients that can be explored through multiple observations and on-and-off source comparisons. Scintillations play an important role in tests for repeatability, especially for compact sources that underly fast transients, as discussed in Cordes, Lazio & Sagan (1997).

## 6 Conclusions

We have described issues related to and methods for searching for fast radio transients. A very small parameter space of the transient radio sky has been explored thus far. While we have gained an excellent understanding of the high-energy transient sky through X-ray and gamma ray satellites, radio searches for transient sources have been limited by the small sky coverage and high susceptibility to RFI of current telescopes. To increase the capabilities of single-pulse searches, systems with multiple beams or multiple antennas are necessary in order to perform coincidence tests which will discriminate between pulses of astrophysical and terrestrial origins. Radio telescopes with larger fields of view are necessary to maximize the chances of detecting radio-bursting objects and to complement the searches at high-energies. Larger collecting areas are needed to increase our sensitivity to pulses from pulsars and other transient sources in other galaxies. Multi-beam systems for the Arecibo and Green Bank telescopes will likely be built within the next few years. Observing with multiple beams will allow us to distinguish RFI from real signals. On a longer time scale, large radio arrays such as the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) will be developed. With a planned field of view over 100 times that of Arecibo and a sensitivity over 20 times that of Arecibo, the SKA will revolutionize our understanding of the transient radio sky. While the SKA will not be operational for many years, single-pulse searches in the meantime, especially with multiple beams, are essential for optimizing routines for RFI excision and for processing large amounts of data. With more sensitive instruments and more sophisticated analyses, the next few decades will undoubtedly bring about a greater understanding of radio-bursting objects, including Crab-like pulsars in other galaxies, counterparts to high-energy bursting sources, and other classes of objects which are yet to be discovered.

We thank Joe Lazio and Ira Wasserman for useful discussions. This work was supported by NSF grants AST9819931, AST0138263 and AST0206036 to Cornell University. MAM is also supported by an NSF Math and Physical Sciences Distinguished Research Fellowship. Arecibo Observatory is operated by the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, which is operated by Cornell University under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF). The Parkes Observatory is part of the Australia Telescope which is funded by the Commonwealth of Australia for operation as a National Facility managed by CSIRO.

## Appendix A Interstellar Scattering and Scintillation of Sources in Other Galaxies

Scattering of radio waves from electron-density variations produces angular blurring (or ‘seeing’) of radio sources and (for variable sources) temporal broadening due to multipath propagation. Under certain conditions, radiation from a source of spatially coherent emission will show scintillation from interference between the differentially-arriving wavefronts and from refractive changes in the radius of curvature of the wavefronts. These various effects are associated with different line-of-sight (LOS) weightings of the scattering material. Here we take these weightings into account when deriving estimates for scattering and scintillations of extragalactic sources.

The phase structure function may be used to calculate the angular scattering and scintillation timescale. This function, as given by Cordes & Rickett (1998; Eq. 2), is

$$D_\varphi (𝜹𝒙,\delta t)=(\lambda r_e)^2f_\alpha _0^D𝑑sC_n^2(s)\left|𝐕_{\mathrm{eff},}\delta t+\left(\frac{s}{D}\right)𝜹𝒙_{\mathbf{}}\right|^\alpha ,$$
(A1)
assuming that diffraction involves only small angles and that the underlying structure function for the electron density is isotropic and scales as $`|𝜹𝒙|^\alpha `$, where $`\alpha +2`$ is the power law index of the electron density wavenumber spectrum. For a Kolmogorov wavenumber spectrum, $`\alpha =5/3`$, subject to constraints on the wavenumber cutoffs. In Eq. A1, $`\lambda `$ is the wavelength, $`r_e`$ is the classical electron radius, $`f_\alpha `$ is a constant of order unity which depends on $`\alpha `$, $`𝐕_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is the effective velocity of the source, and $`D`$ is the distance to the source. The integral is calculated from $`s=0`$ at the source to $`s=D`$ at the observer’s location and $`𝐕_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is

$$𝐕_{\mathrm{eff}}(s)=\left(1\frac{s}{D}\right)𝐕_\mathrm{s}+\left(\frac{s}{D}\right)𝐕_{\mathrm{obs}}𝐕_\mathrm{m}(s),$$
(A2)
where $`𝐕_\mathrm{s}`$, $`𝐕_{\mathrm{obs}}`$ and $`𝐕_\mathrm{m}`$ are the velocities of the source, observer and medium (all relative to a common standard of rest). Only the components perpendicular to the LOS affect the time scales of diffractive interstellar scintillation (DISS).

In the following we assume that the scattering is ‘strong,’ in the sense that the phase perturbation induced by scattering irregularities is larger than one radian when one considers two ray paths separated by a Fresnel scale. For a single thin screen, this scale is well defined, whereas for a distributed scattering medium one must weight the scattering material according to a factor determined by where it lies along the path. For further details, see Rickett (1990).

### A.1 Angular Broadening

First we consider angular broadening (i.e. “interstellar seeing”). The observed angular diameter of a source is related inversely to the transverse scale on which $`D_\varphi (𝜹𝒙,0)=2`$. The integral for $`D_\varphi `$ weights scattering material by $`(s/D)^{5/3}`$ (for a Kolmogorov spectrum) and thus favors material nearest the observer. For objects in other galaxies, we therefore ignore contributions to $`D_\varphi `$ from the host galaxy. Consider an extragalactic source at distance D and Galactic latitude $`b`$ and a Galactic source at the same latitude but at distance $`D_\mathrm{g}`$. Introducing the scattering measure, defined as $`\mathrm{SM}=_0^D𝑑sC_n^2(s)`$, the ratio of angular diameters of these sources as seen by an observer in the Milky Way is

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\theta _{\mathrm{FWHM}}(\mathrm{xgal})}{\theta _{\mathrm{FWHM}}(\mathrm{Gal})}}=\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{SM}_{\mathrm{Gal}}}{_0^{\mathrm{D}_\mathrm{g}}𝑑sC_n^2(s)(1s/D_\mathrm{s})^\alpha }}\right)^{1/\alpha }1,`$ (A3)
where $`\mathrm{SM}_{\mathrm{Gal}}`$ is the Galactic contribution to $`\mathrm{SM}`$ in the direction to the source. The integral in the denominator is over the line of sight to the source, with the integration now going from observer (at $`s=0`$) to source. Assuming an exponential distribution for $`C_n^2`$ and considering a Galactic source at distance $`D_\mathrm{g}`$ equal to one exponential scale height H, we find $`\theta _{\mathrm{FWHM}}(\mathrm{xgal})/\theta _{\mathrm{FWHM}}(\mathrm{Gal})2.1`$. This approximate doubling of the angular diameter of an extragalactic source viewed through the same medium as a Galactic source results from the much smaller curvature of the extragalactic source’s wavefronts impinging on the ISM and can serve as a potential distance estimator for high-latitude transient sources.

### A.2 Pulse Broadening

As discussed in Cordes & Lazio (2002), the pulse broadening timescale is proportional to $`\mathrm{SM}_\tau ^{6/5}D`$, where

$`\mathrm{SM}_\tau =6{\displaystyle _0^D}𝑑s(s/D)(1s/D)C_n^2(s).`$ (A4)
In contrast to angular broadening, the LOS weighting function is symmetric about the LOS midpoint, so a significant contribution is expected from the host galaxy as well as trom the Milky Way. Consider a pulsed source in the host galaxy and a path length through the host galaxy $`D_{\mathrm{xgal}}`$ and a path length through the Milky Way of $`D_\mathrm{g}`$. Both $`D_{\mathrm{xgal}}`$ and $`D_\mathrm{g}`$ are much less than the total distance, $`D`$. For simplicity, we assume that the scattering media in the two galaxies are uniform and that the intergalactic medium makes no contribution to the scattering. The ratio of the pulse-broadening time for the extragalactic object to that for a Galactic source at distance $`D_\mathrm{g}`$ from the observer is

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\tau _{d}^{}{}_{\mathrm{xgal}}{}^{}}{\tau _{d}^{}{}_{\mathrm{Gal}}{}^{}}}3.7\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{SM}_{\mathrm{xgal}}D_{\mathrm{xgal}}}{\mathrm{SM}_{\mathrm{Gal}}D_\mathrm{g}}}\right)^{6/5}\left({\displaystyle \frac{D_\mathrm{g}}{D}}\right)^{1/5}.`$ (A5)
The particular form (with the exponent of 6/5 and the ratio of distances to the 1/5 power) follows from the assumption that scattering is dominated by the power law portion of the wavenumber spectrum and not the inner scale of the spectrum. For intense scattering at low frequencies, the inner scale may play a role, in which case $`6/51`$ and the ratio of distances is replaced by unity (see Cordes & Lazio 2002 for details). The factor of 3.7 in Eq. A5 results from the fact that the Galaxy’s ISM sees spherical waves from Galactic sources but plane waves from extragalactic sources. Similarly, the host galaxy’s ISM sees spherical waves from the emitting source. When the second term in square brackets is unity (equal contributions from the host galaxy and the Milky Way), the coefficient of the factor $`(D_\mathrm{g}/D)^{1/5}`$ becomes 8.5. For a pulsar in the Large Magellanic Cloud ($`D50`$ kpc), for example, the net ratio is about 3.9 for $`D_\mathrm{g}=1`$ kpc. For an object in M33 ($`D900`$ kpc), the ratio is about 2.2. Accordingly, the scintillation bandwidths are a factor of two to four smaller. Of course, scattering in the host galaxy could be much larger than the Galactic scattering, yielding much larger $`\tau _d`$ and much smaller $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _d`$. Representative values of $`\tau _{d}^{}{}_{\mathrm{Gal}}{}^{}`$ can be read off of Figure 3.2 by approximating $`\mathrm{DM}30/\mathrm{sin}|b|`$ pc cm-3.

### A.3 Scintillation Time Scale

We calculate $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_\mathrm{d}`$, the scintillation timescale for DISS, using $`D_\varphi (0,\delta t)=1`$ to define the $`1/e`$ scale of the intensity correlation function. The LOS weightings in Eq. A1-A2 imply that contributions from both the host Galaxy and the Milky Way are important. With $`s/D1`$ for the host Galaxy, $`𝐕_{\mathrm{eff}}(s)𝐕_\mathrm{s}𝐕_\mathrm{m}(s)`$. For the portion of the LOS within the Milky Way, $`s/D1`$ and $`𝐕_{\mathrm{eff}}(s)=𝐕_{\mathrm{obs}}𝐕_\mathrm{m}(s)`$. Evaluating $`D_\varphi `$ using the separate contributions to SM from the host galaxy ($`\mathrm{SM}_{\mathrm{xgal}}`$) and the Milky Way ($`\mathrm{SM}_{\mathrm{Gal}}`$), we find that

$`\mathrm{\Delta }t_\mathrm{d}=\left[(\lambda r_e)^2f_\alpha \left(\mathrm{SM}_{\mathrm{xgal}}|𝐕_{\mathrm{s}}^{}{}_{}{}^{}𝐕_{\mathrm{m}}^{}{}_{}{}^{}{}_{,\mathrm{xgal}}{}^{}|^\alpha +\mathrm{SM}_{\mathrm{Gal}}|𝐕_{\mathrm{obs}}^{}{}_{}{}^{}𝐕_{\mathrm{m}}^{}{}_{}{}^{}{}_{,\mathrm{Gal}}{}^{}|^\alpha \right)\right]^{1/\alpha }`$ (A6)
Eq. A6 implies that if the Galactic and extragalactic contributions to the SM are similar, both ends of the LOS contribute equally to $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_\mathrm{d}`$. However if the source velocity exceeds the velocities of the observer and the interstellar media, as is typically the case with pulsars, then the contribution from the host galaxy will dominate the scintillation timescale. For this case, we calculate the ratio of $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_\mathrm{d}`$ for an extragalactic source to that for a Galactic source as

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }t_\mathrm{d}(\mathrm{xgal})}{\mathrm{\Delta }t_\mathrm{d}(\mathrm{Gal})}}{\displaystyle \frac{|𝐕_{\mathrm{s}}^{}{}_{}{}^{}(\mathrm{Gal})|}{|𝐕_{\mathrm{s}}^{}{}_{}{}^{}(\mathrm{xgal})}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{SM}_{\mathrm{Gal}}}{\mathrm{SM}_{\mathrm{xgal}}}}{\displaystyle _0^1}𝑑xe^xx^\alpha \right]^{1/\alpha }0.36{\displaystyle \frac{|𝐕_{\mathrm{s}}^{}{}_{}{}^{}(\mathrm{Gal})|}{|𝐕_{\mathrm{s}}^{}{}_{}{}^{}(\mathrm{xgal})}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{SM}_{\mathrm{Gal}}}{\mathrm{SM}_{\mathrm{xgal}}}}\right]^{1/\alpha },`$ (A7)
again assuming an exponential distribution for $`C_n^2`$ with a galactic source at a distance of one exponential scale height. Thus, along the same direction, we expect the scintillation timescale of an extragalactic source to be about 1/3 that of a Galactic source at a distance of one scale height for $`C_n^2`$. This result is more general than the analysis of Cordes & Rickett (1998), who considered the scintillation time for extragalactic sources under the assumption that the transverse velocity of the extragalactic source was negligible and that there was no contribution to SM from the host galaxy.

### A.4 Weak Scintillation

When scattering is weak, the scintillations of a point source have a modulation index satisfying $`\sigma _I/I<<1`$, the scintillations are correlated over a frequency range comparable to the (center) radio frequency, and any pulse broadening becomes smaller than the reciprocal radio frequency. The apparent source structure includes, in this regime, an unscattered component along with a scattered component. If $`\sigma _\varphi 1`$ is the rms phase variation between two paths separated by a Fresnel scale, $`\left(\lambda D/2\pi \right)^{1/2}`$, then the fraction of the flux density in the scattered component $`\sigma _\varphi ^2`$.

The transition frequency between weak and strong scattering may be evaluated (for Galactic sources) in terms of the scattering measure, $`\mathrm{SM}`$, using an expression in Cordes & Lazio (2002),

$`\nu _{\mathrm{trans}}=225\mathrm{GHz}\mathrm{SM}^{6/17}D_{\mathrm{eff}}^{5/17},`$ (A8)
where $`D_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is the effective distance to the scattering medium. For pulsars near the solar system with $`\mathrm{log}\mathrm{SM}4`$ and $`D0.1`$ kpc, $`\nu _{\mathrm{trans}}4.4`$ GHz. In the transition regime, scintillations behave similar to those in the strong scattering regime.


format: text

text:
# States of Local Moment Induced by Nonmagnetic Impurities in Cuprate Superconductors

## Abstract

By using a model Hamiltonian with $`d`$-wave superconductivity and competing antiferromagnetic (AF) orders, the local staggered magnetization distribution due to nonmagnetic impurities in cuprate superconductors is investigated. From this, the net magnetic moment induced by a single or double impurities can be obtained. We show that the net moment induced by a single impurity corresponds to a local spin with $`S_z`$=0, or 1/2 depending on the strength of the AF interaction and the impurity scattering. When two impurities are placed at the nearest neighboring sites, the net moment is always zero. For two unitary impurities at the next nearest neighboring sites, and at sites separated by a Cu-ion site, the induced net moment has $`S_z=`$0, or 1/2, or 1. The consequence of these results on experiments will be discussed.

The nonmagnetic impurity effect in high temperature superconductors (HTS) has attracted significant interest both experimentally and theoretically for many years. The induction of local magnetic moment would be expected due to the competition between spin magnetism and superconductivity in these systems. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements in YBa2Cu3O7-x have indicated that nonmagnetic Zn/Li impurities, enhance antiferromagnetic correlation and staggered magnetic moment is induced on the Cu ions in the vicinity of the impurity sites Alloul ; mahajan ; bobroff99 ; kilian ; mac00 ; julien00 ; bobroff01 . Low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) experiments Pan  have directly observed a sharp near zero bias resonance peak around the Zn impurity atoms on the surface of superconducting Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x (BSCCO). Both local potential scattering balatsky ; Zhu01 ; flatte ; Tsuchiura ; Zhu02  and Kondo impurity scattering Zhu03 ; sachdev ; Dai1  in $`d`$-wave superconductors has been theoretically investigated. Recently Wang and Lee WangLee  studied the formation of the local moment near a nonmagnetic impurity in HTS using a renormalized mean field theory of the $`tJ`$ model. They tried to reconcile the formation of local moment around a unitary nonmagnetic impurity and strong zero bias resonance in the local density of states (LDOS) spectrum.

On the other hand, quantum interference effect among multiple impurities in HTS draws considerable attention in recent years Flatte ; Morr1 ; Morr2 ; LZhu ; Andersen ; Atkinson . The energy dependent of the spatial distribution of LDOS spectrum changes remarkably by varying the distance and orientations among the impurities. To our knowledge, so far there exists no study considering the local moment formation due to quantum interference effect among multiple impurities in HTS. In order to study this and related problems, we apply an effective model Hamiltonian defined on a square lattice with a nearest neighboring (n.n.) interaction $`V_{DSC}`$ to simulate the $`d`$-wave superconductivity (DSC) and an onsite Coulomb interaction $`U`$ to represent the competing antiferromagnetic (AF) order. In this paper, the local magnetic moment distribution induced around a single impurity will be numerically studied first. We show that the net moment induced around the impurity can be attributed to a local spin with $`S_z`$=0, or 1/2 depending on the impurity strength and the value of $`U`$, and we shall also present a phase diagram for the net moment formation. With multiple impurities, we expect that quantum interference effect should exhibit itself. When two impurities are placed at the n.n. sites, our numerical result indicates that the net induced moment is always zero, regardless of the value of $`U`$, the impurity strength, and doping. For two unitary impurities at the next n.n. sites and at sites separated by a Cu-ion site, we demonstrate that the net moment induced by them can be represented by a local spin with $`S_z`$=0, or 1/2, or 1 depending on the strength of the AF interaction or doping.

We begin with a phenomenological model Hamiltonian in a two-dimensional plane, in which both the DSC and the competing AF or the spin density wave (SDW) order are taken into account:

$`H`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i,j,\sigma }{}}t_{ij}c_{i\sigma }^{}c_{j\sigma }+{\displaystyle \underset{i,\sigma }{}}(Un_{i\overline{\sigma }}+ϵ\delta _{i_m,i}\mu )c_{i\sigma }^{}c_{i\sigma }`$ (1)
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{i,j}{}}(\mathrm{\Delta }_{ij}c_i^{}c_j^{}+h.c.),`$
where $`ϵ`$ is the on-site impurity strength, $`i_m`$ is the impurity site, $`\mu `$ is the chemical potential. The hopping term includes the n.n. hopping $`t`$ and the next n.n. hopping $`t^{}`$. The staggered magnetization and DSC order in cuprates are defined as $`M_i^s=(1)^ic_i^{}c_ic_i^{}c_i`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{ij}=V_{DSC}c_ic_jc_ic_j/2`$. The mean-field Hamiltonian (1) can be diagonalized by solving the resulting Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations self-consistently

$$\underset{j}{}\left(\begin{array}{cc}_{ij,\sigma }& \mathrm{\Delta }_{ij}\\ \mathrm{\Delta }_{ij}^{}& _{ij,\overline{\sigma }}^{}\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{c}u_{j,\sigma }^n\\ v_{j,\overline{\sigma }}^n\end{array}\right)=E_n\left(\begin{array}{c}u_{i,\sigma }^n\\ v_{i,\overline{\sigma }}^n\end{array}\right),$$
(2)
where the single particle Hamiltonian $`_{ij,\sigma }=t_{ij}+(Un_{i\overline{\sigma }}+ϵ\delta _{i_m,i}\mu )\delta _{ij}`$, and $`n_i=_n|u_i^n|^2f(E_n)`$, $`n_i=_n|v_i^n|^2(1f(E_n))`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{ij}=\frac{V_{DSC}}{4}_n(u_i^nv_j^n+v_i^{}u_j^n)\mathrm{tanh}\left(\frac{E_n}{2k_BT}\right)`$, with $`f(E)`$ as the Fermi distribution function. The DSC order parameter at the $`i`$th site is $`\mathrm{\Delta }_i^D=(\mathrm{\Delta }_{i+e_x,i}+\mathrm{\Delta }_{ie_x,i}\mathrm{\Delta }_{i,i+e_y}\mathrm{\Delta }_{i,ie_y})/4`$ where $`𝐞_{x,y}`$ denotes the unit vector along $`(x,y)`$ direction. Various doping concentrations can be tuned by varying the chemical potential. In the present calculation, we set the lattice constant $`a`$ and hopping integral $`t`$ as units, $`t^{}=0.2`$ and $`V_{DSC}=1.0`$. Due to the localized nature of the impurity states, the order parameters around impurity are insensitive to the boundary conditions for large system sizes. The linear dimension of the unit cell of the vortex lattice is chosen as $`N_x\times N_y=32\times 32`$. The averaged electron density is fixed at $`\overline{n}=0.85`$. The calculation is performed in very low temperature regime. The supercell techniques are employed to calculate the LDOS. The number of the unit cells is $`M_x\times M_y=20\times 20`$.

Our numerical results for a single impurity show that the local AF order may be absent around the impurity site for small $`ϵ`$ and is present when impurity strength $`ϵ`$ becomes larger. In Fig. 1, we plot three typical spatial distributions of the staggered magnetization and their corresponding LDOS spectra around the impurity site. The net local moment is defined as $`S_z=_iS_i^z`$. The impurity is situated at $`(16,16)`$. Panels (a) and (b) corresponds to $`U=2.0`$ and $`ϵ=3`$. It is clear that no AF order induction is shown for such a weak impurity. In panel (b), the resonance energy at the impurity site (black line) is less than zero while the resonance energy at the n.n. impurity site (red line) is greater than zero. The green line is for the site far from the impurity site. With the increasing of the impurity strength, the resonance peak height at the impurity site becomes weaker and its peak shifts to zero energy while the resonance peak height at the n.n. impurity site turns stronger and its peak also moves to zero energy. Panels (c) and (d) are for a strong or unitary impurity $`ϵ=100`$ and $`U`$=2.0. We find the induced staggered magnetization reaches a maximum value of 0.08 at the n.n. site of the impurity in Fig. 1(c), and the local static AF fluctuation extends over several lattice sites from the impurity but there is no net induced moment(or $`S_z=0`$). The remarkable enhancement of zero bias resonance peak at the n.n. sites is shown in panel (d), reflecting the characteristics of a unitary impurity. The presence of weak local AF order results also a rather weak splitting of resonance peak. In Figs. 1(e) and 1(f) we show the our results for $`U=2.35`$ and $`ϵ=100`$. A pronounced two-dimensional SDW order is clearly induced around this unitary impurity in Fig. 1(e). The staggered magnetization at the n.n. site reaches to 0.33 and the net induced moment becomes $`S_z=1/2`$.

The zero bias resonance peak of the LDOS at a smaller $`U`$ with $`S_z=0`$ shown in Fig. 1(d) at the n.n. site is substantially suppressed and become two weak peaks in the larger $`U`$ case with $`S_z=1/2`$(see Fig. 1(e)).

To examine the local moment formation, we present the phase diagram of $`ϵ`$ versus $`U`$ in Fig. 2.

It is obvious that the induced net moment ($`S_z=1/2`$) should show up for larger impurity strength $`ϵ`$ and stronger AF interaction $`U`$, while $`S_z=0`$ tends to exist for smaller $`ϵ`$ or weaker $`U`$. In fact, there exist three phase regimes depending on the magnitude of $`U`$ value or doping (not shown here). For small $`U`$, no AF order (nonmagnetic phase) is induced around the impurity (see Fig.1(a)). For intermediate $`U`$, weak local AF order (AF fluctuation phase) appears (see Fig. 1(c)). In both cases the net induced magnetic moment corresponds to a local spin with $`S_z=0`$. For larger $`U`$, a pronounced SDW order is induced (see Fig. 1(e)) and the net moment becomes $`S_z=1/2`$ (local moment phase). In the nonmagnetic phase regime and for a unitary impurity, there is a sharp zero bias resonance peak in the LDOS without any splitting balatsky . The splitting is gradually showing up in the AF fluctuation phase regime. The LDOS could be substantially suppressed at zero bias and split into two weak peaks in the third regime with $`S_z`$=1/2. It is important to notice that the AF fluctuation phase regime discussed here is absent in Ref. . The staggered magnetization distribution around a unitary impurity like Zn obtained in this paper is in agreement with the results derived from the NMR experiments Alloul ; mahajan ; bobroff99 ; kilian ; mac00 ; julien00 ; bobroff01 . The critical value of the $`U`$ for inducing $`S_z=1/2`$ is doping dependent. The underdoped case corresponds to smaller $`U_c`$. The $`S_z=1/2`$ moment due to a unitary impurity is much easier to be induced in an underdoped sample than in optimally and overdoped samples, because the amplitude of the induced AF order becomes increasingly stronger as the hole doping is decreased. Since the existence of imhomogenity in the HTS sample has been experimentally confirmed Pan2 ; Lang , as a result, the number of induced $`S_z=1/2`$ moments would be smaller than the number of unitary impurities like Zn. We also predict that the strong zero-bias-peak observed by Pan et al. Pan  at the Zn impurity site should be associated with $`S_z=0`$ moment in the overdoped and possibly optimally doped regions. In the underdoped region, the induced moment would become $`S_z=1/2`$ where the LDOS spectrum should be much suppressed by the induced SDW at zero bias.

We next study the quantum interference effect on the local moment formation due to two unitary impurities. When they are placed at the n.n. sites (see Fig. 3(a)), our numerical results for the distribution of the induced magnetization around the impurities are shown in Figs. 3(b) and 3(c) with respectively $`U`$=2.2 and 2.4. For $`U`$=2.0 and 2.35 (not shown here), the induced staggered magnetizations are also uniformly zero and exactly identical to that in Fig. 3(b). Although it appears that the staggered magnetizations due to the two n.n. impurities have exact cancellation, their influence on the LDOS is still apparent and the result will not be present here. With $`U`$=2.4 and no impurities, one can numerically demonstrate that the staggered magnetization has a stripe like structure ChenTing  with periodicity 8$`a`$ which coexists with the DSC. The presence of the impurities could pin the stripes but does not modify the overall stripe-like structure except the magnetizations at or very close to the impurity sites are altered (see Fig. 1(c)). In all these cases, the net induced moment has $`S_z=0`$. This result is very robust and independent of the value of $`U`$, impurity strength $`ϵ`$, and doping.

For two unitary impurities placed at the next n.n. sites (see Fig. 3(d)), The induced spatial profiles of the staggered magnetization for $`U`$=2.0 and 2.4 are respectively shown in Figs. 3(e) and 3(f). The net moment associated with Fig. 3(e) yields a local spin of $`S_z=1/2`$, while that associated with Fig. 3(f) has $`S_z=1`$. For $`U=2.35`$, the induced SDW no longer has the stripe like structure and we still obtain $`S_z=1`$. The induced net moment has been shown to have $`S_z=0`$ when $`U`$ is less than 1.9.

Finally, we place two unitary impurities at sites separated by a Cu ion (see Fig. 4(a)). The distributions of the staggered magnetizations are shown in Figs. 4(b), 4(c) and 4(d) for $`U`$=1.9, 2.0 and 2.4, and the induced net moments have respectively $`S_z`$=0, 1/2 and 1.

In Fig. 4(b), no induced AF order is present for small $`U`$. The net moment has $`S_z=0`$. In Fig. 4(c), a remarkable enhancement of local AF order is shown at the central Cu site and the DSC order at this site is suppressed to almost zero. This is a kind of constructive interference effect. Its net moment has $`S_z=1/2`$. In Fig 4(d), one can clearly observe the pinning of SDW stripes by impurities. The local magnetization at the central Cu site is also enhanced. The net moment has $`S_z=1`$. As shown in Fig. 4(e), if we choose $`U=2.2`$ and a different band parameter $`t^{}=0.3`$, the induced local moment associated with two individual impurities would have opposite polarity and yield a net $`S_z=0`$. The destructive interference effect is shown at the center site where local AF order is equal to zero. This type of opposite polarities occurs when two impurities separated further apart even with $`t^{}=0.2`$ as used in the present paper. The net local moment induced by two impurities spaced by one Cu ion could result $`S_z`$= 0, or 1/2 or 1. In other words, quantum phase transitions may occur among different local moment phases by varying $`U`$ values or doping. The detailed study of various configurations of the impurities on the local moment formation and LDOS spectra will be presented as a future work.

In summary, we have investigated the induction of the local moment by a single and double impurities in HTS based on a phenomenological model with DSC and competing AF orders. By tuning the impurity potential and the value of $`U`$, a transition between various net magnetic moment states may appear. The LDOS has been calculated for a single impurity. We show that the zero bias resonant peak obtained next to the unitary impurity site is always associated with weak $`U`$ and $`S_z=0`$. When $`S_z=1/2`$, the LDOS at zero bias is suppressed by the gap of the locally induced SDW. This is consistent with the recent STM experiments Lang , where the zero bias resonant peaks due to Zn impurities are observed only in the hole rich region, not in the hole poor region in BSCCO. In addition, the quantum interference effect by two nonmagnetic impurities has also been studied. Our calculation predicts the absence of net magnetic moment around two n.n. impurities, regardless of the values of the impurity strength, doping, and $`U`$. This result indicates that the number of induced $`S_z=1/2`$ moments is always smaller than the number Zn impurities even in an underdoped sample where the AF strength is appreciable. We demonstrate that net magnetic moment around two unitary impurities placed at the next n.n. sites and sites separated by a Cu ion could be either 0, 1/2 or 1 depending on the value of $`U`$. It is our hope that the present investigation on the local moment formation may provide useful information for future experimental test.

We are grateful to Profs. T.K. Lee, S.H. Pan, Z.Q. Wang, G.-q. Zheng and Dr. J. X. Zhu for useful discussions. This work was supported by the Robert A. Welch Foundation, by the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston through the State of Texas.


text:
# Multiple Photonic Shells Around a Line Singularity

## Abstract

Line singularities including cosmic strings may be screened by photonic shells until they appear as a planar wall.

KEY WORDS: Levi-Civita spacetime, photonic shells.

Infinitely thin static photonic shells composed of equal amounts of oppositely moving photons following circular, helical or axial trajectories around a cosmic string  and, around a general line singularity  have recently been found. In this paper, we will find solutions giving multiple photonic shells around a line singularity. Multiple photonic shells around cosmic strings will be obtained as a limiting case. We will show that the exterior region of the (multiple) shells may become an infinite plane wall.

The vacuum spacetime exterior to a static, cylindrically symmetric source is described by the Levi-Civita metric  which can be written as:

$$ds^2=\rho ^{4\sigma }dt^2+\rho ^{4\sigma (2\sigma 1)}(d\rho ^2+P^2dz^2)+Q^2\rho ^{2(12\sigma )}d\varphi ^2$$
(1)
where $`t`$ , $`\rho `$, $`z`$ and $`\varphi `$ are the time, the radial, the axial and the angular variables of the cylindrical coordinates with ranges $`\mathrm{}<t,z<\mathrm{},`$ $`0\rho <\mathrm{}`$ and $`0\varphi 2\pi `$. $`\sigma `$, $`P`$ and $`Q`$ are real constants. Transforming the radius $`\rho `$ into a proper radius $`r`$ by defining $`dr=\rho ^{2\sigma (2\sigma 1)}d\rho `$ puts (1) in the Kasner form:

$$ds^2=(\frac{r}{r_0})^{2a}dt^2+dr^2+(\frac{r}{r_0})^{2b}dz^2+(\frac{r}{r_0})^{2c}r_0^2\alpha ^2d\varphi ^2,$$
(2)
where

$$\rho =(Nr)^{1/N},N=4\sigma ^22\sigma +1,a=\frac{2\sigma }{N},b=\frac{2\sigma (12\sigma )}{N},c=\frac{12\sigma }{N}.$$
(3)
Here $`\alpha ,a,b,c`$ are real constants and $`r`$ is the radial coordinate. Note that we rescaled the $`z`$ and $`t`$ coordinates and the constant $`\alpha `$ is given by:

$$\alpha =QN^c(r_o)^{c1}.$$
(4)
This metric is cylindrically symmetric and represents the exterior field of the line singularity at $`r=0`$ . The Einstein tensor for this metric gives vacuum solutions of Einstein equations with the constraints

$$a+b+c=a^2+b^2+c^2=1,$$
(5)
so only one of the parameters $`a,b,c`$ is free. In this paper we need $`a,c>0`$ and $`b<0`$ to have a source with positive energy. For detailed discussion of the properties of the metrics (1) and (2) see  and references therein. The metric reduces to the famous cosmic string metric  when $`a=b=0,c=1`$ keeping the angular defect parameter $`\alpha <1`$.

Let us first review the photonic shell solution around a line singularity. We choose the interior and the exterior regions of the infinitely long thin cylindrical shell with radius $`r_1`$ to be two different Levi-Civita metrics in Kasner form with the metrics:

$$ds_{}^2=(\frac{r}{r_1})^{2a}dt^2+dr^2+(\frac{r}{r_1})^{2b}dz^2+(\frac{r}{r_1})^{2c}\alpha ^2r_1^2d\varphi ^2(r<r_1),$$
(6)
and

$$ds_+^2=(\frac{r}{r_1})^{2a^{}}dt^2+dr^2+(\frac{r}{r_1})^{2b^{}}dz^2+(\frac{r}{r_1})^{2c^{}}\alpha ^2r_1^2d\varphi ^2(r>r_1),$$
(7)
where $`a,b,c`$ and $`a^{},b^{},c^{}`$ satisfy the relations (5). We can define an infinitely thin and long shell if the metrics are continuous everywhere but their first derivatives are discontinuous at $`r=r_1`$. These discontunitues may give rise to an infinitely thin shell. We can combine (6) and (7) in the form :

$$ds^2=A^2(r)dt^2+dr^2+B^2(r)dz^2+C^2(r)d\varphi ^2$$
(8)
with

$$A(r)=(r/r_1)^a\theta (r_1r)+(r/r_1)^a^{}\theta (rr_1),$$
(9)
$$B(r)=(r/r_1)^b\theta (r_1r)+(r/r_1)^b^{}\theta (rr_1),$$
(10)
and

$$C(r)=[(r/r_1)^c\theta (r_1r)+(r/r_1)^c^{}\theta (rr_1)]r_1\alpha ,$$
(11)
where $`\theta (xx_0)`$ is the Heaviside step function.

The nonzero components of the Einstein tensor for the metric (8) are given by

$$G_{00}=(\frac{B_{rr}}{B}+\frac{C_{rr}}{C}+\frac{B_rC_r}{BC})$$
(12)
$$G_{rr}=G_{11}=\frac{A_rB_r}{AB}+\frac{A_rC_r}{AC}+\frac{B_rC_r}{BC}$$
(13)
$$G_{zz}=G_{22}=\frac{A_{rr}}{A}+\frac{C_{rr}}{C}+\frac{A_rC_r}{AC}$$
(14)
$$G_{\varphi \varphi }=G_{33}=\frac{A_{rr}}{A}+\frac{B_{rr}}{B}+\frac{A_rB_r}{AB},$$
(15)
where subscripts denote partial derivatives. Since the exterior and interior regions are vacuum, the only surviving terms are the terms which contain Dirac delta functions giving the energy momentum tensor of the shell. The nonzero elements of $`G_{\mu \nu }`$ are

$$G_{00}=\frac{b^{}b+c^{}c}{r_1}\delta (rr_1)=\frac{a^{}a}{r_1}\delta (rr_1),$$
(16)
$$G_{22}=\frac{a^{}a+c^{}c}{r_1}\delta (rr_1)=\frac{bb^{}}{r_1}\delta (rr_1),$$
(17)
$$G_{33}=\frac{a^{}a+b^{}b}{r_1}\delta (rr_1)=\frac{cc^{}}{r_1}\delta (rr_1).$$
(18)
For the Einstein equation

$$G_{\mu \nu }=8\pi GT_{\mu \nu }$$
(19)
we can choose the energy momentum tensor of the shell in the form

$$T_{\mu \nu }=diag(\rho ,p_r,p_z,p_\varphi )$$
(20)
where $`\rho `$ is the energy density and $`p_i(i=1,2,3)`$ are the principal pressures. Since we used an orthonormal basis, we have $`T_0^0=T_{00}`$ and $`T_j^i=T_{ij}(i,j=r,z,\varphi )`$. Using (5) one can show that the energy momentum tensor of the shell satisfies the condition

$$T_\mu ^\mu =0$$
(21)
and this result can be interpreted as an infinitely long thin shell along the $`z`$ direction with radius $`r_1`$ composed of equal amount of oppositely moving photons along a helical direction around a line singularity. This helical motion gives rise to pressures in the $`\varphi `$ and $`z`$ directions with the equation of state $`\rho =p_z+p_\varphi .`$ Thus if one chooses the interior and the exterior metrics of the shell as Levi-Civita metrics in Kasner form (6,7) then the shell is necessarily composed of massless particles. Since we have $`a,a^{}>0`$ if $`a^{}>a`$ the shell has positive energy density. The singularity at $`r=0`$ has positive effective mass density. Choosing $`b=b^{}`$ in (17 ) give rise to the solution $`\rho =p_\varphi `$ with other components of the $`T_{\mu \nu }`$ vanishing. This can be interpreted as equal amount of oppositely rotating photons along a circular path and the relations between the parameters of the interior and exterior metrics (6-7) become $`a=c^{},b=b^{}`$ and $`c=a^{}`$. The shell has positive energy density for $`a^{}>a`$ and the line singularity has again positive effective mass density. We can find the solution where the shell with photons counter moving along the $`z`$ direction with choosing $`c=c^{}`$ in (18) where the nonzero components of the $`T_{\mu \nu }`$ are $`\rho =p_z`$ and the relation between the parameters of the interior and exterior metrics (6-7) are $`a=b^{},b=a^{}`$ and $`c=c^{}`$ . But this time, either shell or line singularity has negative energy density .

Now, let us discuss the two concentric thin shells around a line singularity. The two shells seperate spacetime into three vacuum regions which can be characterized by three different Levi-Civita metrics in Kasner form (2) with the metric parameters $`a,b,c,a^{},b^{},c^{},a^{\prime \prime },b^{\prime \prime },c^{\prime \prime }`$ which satisfy the relations (5). These metrics can be combined as (8) where the metric is continuous but its first derivatives are discontinuous with the functions given by

$$A(r)=\theta (r_1r)(\frac{r}{r_1})^a+\theta (rr_1)\theta (r_2r)(\frac{r}{r_1})^a^{}+\theta (rr_2)(\frac{r}{r_2})^{a^{\prime \prime }}(\frac{r_2}{r_1})^a^{},$$
(22)
To obtain $`B(r)`$ replace $`a`$ with $`b`$ and to obtain $`C(r)`$ replace $`a`$ with $`c`$ and multiply with $`\alpha r_1`$ in (22). The nonzero components of the Einstein tensor are:

$$G_{00}=(\frac{a^{}a}{r_1})\delta (rr_1)+(\frac{a^{\prime \prime }a^{}}{r_2})\delta (rr_2)$$
(23)
$$G_{zz}=(\frac{bb^{}}{r_1})\delta (rr_1)+(\frac{b^{}b^{\prime \prime }}{r_2})\delta (rr_2)$$
(24)
$$G_{\varphi \varphi }=(\frac{cc^{}}{r_1})\delta (rr_1)+(\frac{c^{}c^{\prime \prime }}{r_2})\delta (rr_2).$$
(25)
Since the energy-momentum tensor satisfies (21), we have two infinitely thin photonic cylindrical shells with radii $`r_1`$ and $`r_2`$ where photons counter moving along a helical path around a line singularity. The first and second shells have positive energy density for $`a^{}>a`$ and $`a^{\prime \prime }>a^{}`$. Thus if we have $`a^{\prime \prime }>a^{}>a`$ both of the two photonic shells have positive energy density.

We can construct 3 photonic shells around a line singularity by choosing the continuous function A(r) as:

$`A(r)=\theta (r_1r)({\displaystyle \frac{r}{r_1}})^a+\theta (rr_1)\theta (r_2r)({\displaystyle \frac{r}{r_1}})^a^{}`$
$`+\theta (rr_2)\theta (r_3r)({\displaystyle \frac{r}{r_2}})^{a^{\prime \prime }}({\displaystyle \frac{r_2}{r_1}})^a^{}+\theta (rr_3)({\displaystyle \frac{r}{r_3}})^{a^{\prime \prime \prime }}({\displaystyle \frac{r_3}{r_2}})^{a^{\prime \prime }}({\displaystyle \frac{r_2}{r_1}})^a^{}.`$ (26)
To obtain $`B(r)`$ replace $`a`$ with $`b`$ and to obtain $`C(r)`$ replace $`a`$ with $`c`$ and multiply with $`\alpha r_1`$ in (Multiple Photonic Shells Around a Line Singularity). The nonzero components of the Einstein tensor are calculated as:

$$G_{00}=(\frac{a^{}a}{r_1})\delta (rr_1)+(\frac{a^{\prime \prime }a^{}}{r_2})\delta (rr_2)+(\frac{a^{\prime \prime \prime }a^{\prime \prime }}{r_3})\delta (rr_3),$$
(27)
$$G_{zz}=(\frac{bb^{}}{r_1})\delta (rr_1)+(\frac{b^{}b^{\prime \prime }}{r_2})\delta (rr_2)+(\frac{b^{\prime \prime }b^{\prime \prime \prime }}{r_3})\delta (rr_3),$$
(28)
$$G_{00}=(\frac{cc^{}}{r_1})\delta (rr_1)+(\frac{c^{}c^{\prime \prime }}{r_2})\delta (rr_2)+(\frac{c^{\prime \prime }c^{\prime \prime \prime }}{r_3})\delta (rr_3).$$
(29)
For this case $`T_{\mu \nu }`$ again satisfy (21) thus we have three photonic shells around a line singularity with photons moving along helical path. If we have $`a^{\prime \prime \prime }>a^{\prime \prime }>a^{}>a`$ both of the three photonic shells have positive energy density.

Thus, using this method, one can construct a solution where a line singularity (for $`a=b=0,c=1,\alpha <1`$ a cosmic string) at $`r=0`$ is surrounded by $`n`$ infinitely thin cylindrical photonic shells with photons counter moving along a helical path. All shells satisfy the positive energy condition if the metric parameters satisfy the condition

$$a^{(n)}>\mathrm{}>a^{\prime \prime \prime }>a^{\prime \prime }>a^{}>a.$$
(30)
Due to the relations (5) the maximum value that $`a^{(n)}`$ can have is 1 and in this case the exterior region of the multiple shells ($`r>r_n`$) is determined by the metric:

$$ds^2=r^2dt^2+dr^2+dz^2+d\varphi ^2.$$
(31)
This metric is the Rindler’s metric  which describes static plane symmetric vacuum spacetime . It corresponds to a uniform gravitational field and test particles are uniformly accelerated in this field whereas the Riemann tensor is identically zero. Thus the line singularity may be surrounded by multiple photonic shells until they all appear as an infinitely long static plane wall.

We can also construct $`n`$ photonic shells with counter rotating photons ($`p_z=0`$) or counter moving photons along axial direction ($`p_\varphi =0`$) around a line singularity but if one shell has positive energy density then the next one has negative energy density or vice versa thus these solutions cannot be physically relevant. Notice that if interior singularity is a cosmic string ($`a,b=0,c=1`$), for a shell with counter rotating photons, the exterior metric reduces to (31) since for a counter rotating shell $`a^{}=c,b^{}=b,c^{}=a.`$

Our results can be summarized as follows. When a cosmic string is surrounded by a single photonic shell composed of circular counter rotating photons, from the outside the photonic shell looks like a plane wall. However when the photons are helical, multiple photonic shells are possible. There is no photonic shell with axial photons around a cosmic string. For a general line singularity a single photonic shell is always possible. Multiple photonic shells, however, require that the photons are helical, i.e. multiple photonic shells are not possible if photons move purely circularly or axially. In all cases the photonic shells may be terminated by an outermost photonic shell, which, from the outside looks like a planar wall.