We compare the noise in interferometric measurements of the Vela pulsar from ground- and space-based antennas with theoretical predictions. The noise depends on both the flux density and the interferometric phase of the source. Because the Vela pulsar is bright and scintillating, these comparisons extend into both the low and high signal-to-noise regimes. Furthermore, our diversity of baselines explores the full range of variation in interferometric phase. We find excellent agreement between theoretical expectations and our estimates of noise among samples within the characteristic scintillation scales. Namely, the noise is drawn from an elliptical Gaussian distribution in the complex plane, centered on the signal. The major axis, aligned with the signal phase, varies quadratically with the signal, while the minor axis, at quadrature, varies with the same linear coefficients. For weak signal, the noise approaches a circular Gaussian distribution. Both the variance and covariance of the noise are also affected by artifacts of digitization and correlation. In particular, we show that gating introduces correlations between nearby spectral channels. © © 2012. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	methods: statistical - pulsars: individual: Vela pulsar - radio continuum: stars - techniques: interferometric
Research Division:	Physical Sciences
Research Group:	Astronomical sciences
Research Field:	Galactic astronomy
Objective Division:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Group:	Expanding knowledge
Objective Field:	Expanding knowledge in the physical sciences
UTAS Author:	McCulloch, PM (Professor Peter McCulloch)
ID Code:	83472
Year Published:	2012
Web of Science® Times Cited:	6
Deposited By:	Mathematics and Physics
Deposited On:	2013-03-14
Last Modified:	2017-11-03
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