{
  "abstract": "Radio waves propagating through the interstellar medium are influenced by variations in plasma density. For spatially localised plasma structures along the line of sight, time-delay Doppler analyses of pulsars often reveal scintillation arcs in the secondary spectrum, frequently exhibiting a parabolic morphology. In the thin-screen approximation, the arc curvature is commonly used to infer the distance to the plasma concentration, which is modelled - via Kirchhoff-Fresnel diffraction theory - as an effective phase screen imposed by the column density of a localised disturbance. Here, we identify several limitations of this model that necessitate a fully three-dimensional treatment, without reducing the problem to a projected screen density. When volume propagation is considered, asymmetries and a richer variety of features emerge in the secondary spectrum compared to those predicted by the thin-screen approximation. For some cases the arc curvature varies depending on the three-dimensional structure of the plasma, rendering it a less reliable indicator of distance. We conjecture that these phenomena are linked to the onset of branched flow produced by a sequence of weak but correlated scattering events.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": "Journal reference: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 551, Issue 2, September 2026",
  "arxiv": "2605.14986",
  "author_total": 1,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Tobias Kramer"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/fkheq9t5ptebx.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2605.14986",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "fkheq9t5ptebx",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.14986",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "LicenseRef-arXiv-nonexclusive-1.0",
  "licence_label": "arXiv licence",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "astro-ph.HE"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2605.14986",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-08-14",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/fkheq9t5ptebx.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:18:00Z",
      "native_id": "2605.14986",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.14986"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "astronomy",
      "origin": "arxiv:astro-ph.HE",
      "subfield": "high-energy-astrophysics"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Pulsar scintillation arcs formed from correlated volume scattering",
  "title_text": "Pulsar scintillation arcs formed from correlated volume scattering",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:18:00Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/fkheq9t5ptebx",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": [
    {
      "doi": "10.1093/mnras/stag1535",
      "pid": null,
      "relation": "published-as",
      "title": null,
      "venue": null
    }
  ]
}