Thermalization time and specific heat of the neutron stars crust

Journal Article · Wed Dec 15 04:00:00 EST 2010 · Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVC.82.065804· OSTI ID:21499299

Fortin, M ^[1]; Grill, F ^[2]; Margueron, J ^[1]; Page, Dany ^[3]; Sandulescu, N ^[4]

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1. Institut de Physique Nucleaire, IN2P3-CNRS, and Universite Paris-Sud, F-91406 Orsay Cedex (France)
2. Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 16, I-20133 Milan (Italy)
3. Departamento de Astrofisica Teorica, Instituto de Astronomia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, 04360 Mexico City Distrito Federal (Mexico)
4. National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, RO-76900 Bucharest (Romania)

We discuss the thermalization process of the neutron star's crust described by solving the heat-transport equation with a microscopic input for the specific heat of baryonic matter. The heat equation is solved with initial conditions specific to a rapid cooling of the core. To calculate the specific heat of inner-crust baryonic matter, that is, nuclear clusters and unbound neutrons, we use the quasiparticle spectrum provided by the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov approach at finite temperature. In this framework, we analyze the dependence of the crust thermalization on pairing properties and on cluster structure of inner-crust matter. It is shown that the pairing correlations reduce the crust thermalization time by a large fraction. The calculations show also that the nuclear clusters have a non-negligible influence on the time evolution of the surface temperature of the neutron star.

• OSTI ID: 21499299
• Journal Information: Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics, Journal Name: Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 82; ISSN 0556-2813; ISSN PRVCAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
BARYONS
COOLING
CORRELATIONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ENERGY TRANSFER
FERMIONS
HADRONS
HARTREE-FOCK-BOGOLYUBOV THEORY
HEAT TRANSFER
NEUTRON STARS
NEUTRONS
NUCLEONS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
SIMULATION
SLOWING-DOWN
SPECIFIC HEAT
SPECTRA
STARS
SURFACES
THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY
THERMALIZATION
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES