Scintillation measurements of the millisecond pulsar PSR J0030+0451 and pulsar space velocities

Scintillation observations of the nearby single millisecond pulsar (MSP) PS R J0030 + 0451 were carried out with the Parkes 64 m radiotelescope at thre e different epochs in 1999. From analysis of the dynamic spectrum we obtain ed the amplitude of the electron density power spectrum log<(C-N(2))over ba r> similar or equal to -3.33 and a scintillation velocity V-iss less than o r similar to 15 kms(-1). This result shows that the Shklovskii effect on th e spin-down rate P is negligible. We also performed a correlation analysis between pulsar proper motions (Vpm) and scintillation velocities (V-iss) us ing updated measurements for a sample of 77 objects, 17 of which are MSPs. The full sample shows a correlation coefficient r(s) similar or equal to 80 % at an extremely high significance level, while for the MSP sub-sample (ex cluding 2 outliers) we obtain r(s) similar or equal to 90%.