Precision Determination of Scintillation Screen Parameters from Annual Modulation Measurement of Pulsar Scintillation Arc Curvature with the FAST Telescope

Abstract Pulsar scintillation observations have revealed ubiquitous discrete scintillation screens in the interstellar medium. A major obstacle in identifying the nature of these screens is the uncertainty in their distances, which prevents precise correlation with known structures in the Milky Way. We used the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope to observe PSR B1237+25, PSR 1842+14, and PSR 2021+51. We detected 10 scintillation arcs in PSR B1237+25, 1 in PSR 1842+14, and at least 6 in PSR 2021+51. By modeling the annual modulation of these scintillation arcs, we constrained the distances of the scintillation screens, as well as the anisotropic scattering directions and the projected velocities in those directions. The scintillation screens are distributed throughout the entire paths between Earth and the pulsars. Among these, the distance to the main scintillation screen toward PSR B1237+25 is 26 7 − 28 + 32 pc, the scintillation screen toward PSR B1842+14 is at a distance of 24 0 − 120 + 210 pc, and the main scintillation screen toward PSR B2021+51 is located at 88 7 − 132 + 167 pc. Several screens in our sample appear at distances coinciding with the Local Bubble boundary, particularly the brightest scintillation arc toward PSR B1237+25. We provide a substantial sample of scintillation screen measurements, revealing the rich plasma density fluctuation structures present in the Milky Way.