Frequency dependence of pulsar radiation patterns

Abstract

We report on new results from simultaneous dual-frequency single-pulse observations of PSR B0329+54 using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope. We find that the longitude separation of subpulses at two different frequencies (238 and 612 MHz) is less than that for the corresponding components in the average profile. A similar behavior has been noticed before in a number of pulsars. We argue that subpulses are emitted within narrow flux tubes of the dipolar field lines and that the mean pulsar beam has a conal structure. In such a model the longitudes of profile components are determined by the intersection of the line-of-sight trajectory with the frequency-dependent cones of maximum mean intensity, while the longitudes of subpulses are determined by the intersection of the line-of-sight trajectory with subpulse-associated emission beams. Thus, we show that the difference in the frequency dependence of subpulse and profile component longitudes is a natural property of the conal model of pulsar emission beam. We support our conclusions by numerical modeling of pulsar emission using the known parameters for this pulsar, which produce results that agree very well with our dual-frequency observations.