Coronal Broadening of the Crab Nebula 1969-71: Interpretation

Abstract

In the preceding paper, observations of the coronal broadening of the Crab Nebula during 1969-71 were described. The basic parameters, radial and tangential broadening, and their relation to previous work were discussed. Whereas previous observations have utilized two or three interferometers only, so that the degree of broadening along any particular axis could only be obtained under the assumption of a particular form (e.g. Gaussian) for the angular power spectrum, the present work has enabled complete sampling of the two-dimensional brightness distribution of the broadened source. It is therefore possible, and of considerable interest, to compare the observed distributions to those computed on the basis of various theoretical models for the scattering process.