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Title: Late-time Cooling of Neutron Star Transients and the Physics of the Inner Crust

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [1];  [3]
  1. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)
  2. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States); McGill Univ., Montreal, QC (Canada)
  3. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States); Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)

An accretion outburst onto a neutron star transient heats the neutron star's crust out of thermal equilibrium with the core. After the outburst, the crust thermally relaxes toward equilibrium with the neutron star core, and the surface thermal emission powers the quiescent X-ray light curve. Crust cooling models predict that thermal equilibrium of the crust will be established $$\approx 1000\,\mathrm{days}$$ into quiescence. Recent observations of the cooling neutron star transient MXB 1659-29, however, suggest that the crust did not reach thermal equilibrium with the core on the predicted timescale and continued to cool after $$\approx 2500\,\mathrm{days}$$ into quiescence. Because the quiescent light curve reveals successively deeper layers of the crust, the observed late-time cooling of MXB 1659-29 depends on the thermal transport in the inner crust. In particular, the observed late-time cooling is consistent with a low thermal conductivity layer near the depth predicted for nuclear pasta that maintains a temperature gradient between the neutron star's inner crust and core for thousands of days into quiescence. As a result, the temperature near the crust–core boundary remains above the critical temperature for neutron superfluidity, and a layer of normal neutrons forms in the inner crust. We find that the late-time cooling of MXB 1659-29 is consistent with heat release from a normal neutron layer near the crust–core boundary with a long thermal time. We also investigate the effect of inner crust physics on the predicted cooling curves of the accreting transient KS 1731-260 and the magnetar SGR 1627-41.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-00ER41132
OSTI ID:
1537184
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Vol. 839, Issue 2; ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 20 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (14)

Cooling of Accretion-Heated Neutron Stars journal September 2017
Continued cooling of the accretion-heated neutron star crust in the X-ray transient IGR J17480–2446 located in the globular cluster Terzan 5 journal May 2019
On the weak magnetic field of millisecond pulsars: does it decay before accretion? journal October 2019
Nuclear physics of the outer layers of accreting neutron stars journal July 2018
Long-term temperature evolution of neutron stars undergoing episodic accretion outbursts journal September 2019
Crust-cooling Models Are Insensitive to the Crust–Core Transition Pressure for Realistic Equations of State journal September 2019
Nuclear Reactions in the Crusts of Accreting Neutron Stars journal May 2018
Flux Relaxation after Two Outbursts of the Magnetar SGR 1627–41 and Possible Hard X-Ray Emission journal May 2018
Cooling of Accretion-Heated Neutron Stars text January 2017
Nuclear Reactions in the Crusts of Accreting Neutron Stars text January 2018
Continued cooling of the accretion-heated neutron star crust in the X-ray transient IGR J17480-2446 located in the globular cluster Terzan 5 text January 2018
Domains and defects in nuclear "pasta" text January 2018
Nuclear Physics of the Outer Layers of Accreting Neutron Stars text January 2018
On the weak magnetic field of millisecond pulsars: Does it decay before accretion? text January 2019

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