Implications for Galactic Electron Density Structure from Pulsar Sightlines Intersecting H II Regions

Recent radio surveys have revealed pulsars with dispersion and scattering delays induced by ionized gas that are larger than the rest of the observed pulsar population, in some cases with electron column densities (or dispersion measures, DMs) larger than the maximum predictions of Galactic electron density models. By cross-matching the observed pulsar population against H II region catalogs, we show that the majority of pulsars with DM > 600 pc cm^‑3 and scattering delays τ(1 GHz) > 10 ms lie behind H II regions, and that H II region intersections may be relevant to as much as a third of the observed pulsar population. The fraction of the full pulsar population with sightlines intersecting H II regions is likely larger. Accounting for H II regions resolves apparent discrepancies where Galactic electron density models place high-DM pulsars beyond the Galactic disk. By comparing emission measures inferred from recombination line observations to pulsar DMs, we show that H II regions can contribute tens to hundreds of parsecs per cubic centimeter in electron column density along a pulsar line of sight. We find that nearly all pulsars with significant excess (and deficit) scattering from the mean τ–DM relation are spatially coincident with known discrete ionized gas structures, including H II regions. Accounting for H II regions is critical to the interpretation of radio dispersion and scattering measurements as electron density tracers, both in the Milky Way and in other galaxies.