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Title: Constraining superfluidity in dense matter from the cooling of isolated neutron stars

Abstract

In this paper, we present a quantitative analysis of superfluidity and superconductivity in dense matter from observations of isolated neutron stars in the context of the minimal cooling model. Our new approach produces the best fit neutron triplet superfluid critical temperature, the best fit proton singlet superconducting critical temperature, and their associated statistical uncertainties. We find that the neutron triplet critical temperature is likely 2.09+4.37-1.41 x 108 K and that the proton singlet critical temperature is 7.59+2.48-5.81 x 109 K. However, we also show that this result only holds if the Vela neutron star is not included in the data set. If Vela is included, the gaps increase significantly to attempt to reproduce Vela's lower temperature given its young age. Further including neutron stars believed to have carbon atmospheres increases the neutron critical temperature and decreases the proton critical temperature. Finally, our method demonstrates that continued observations of isolated neutron stars can quantitatively constrain the nature of superfluidity in dense matter.

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
  2. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Physics Division
  3. National Autonomous Univ. of Mexico, Mexico City (Mexico). Inst. of Astronomy
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP); National Science Foundation (NSF)
OSTI Identifier:
1460179
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1418070
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC05-00OR22725; PHY 1554876
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review C
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 97; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2469-9985
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS; 79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; asymmetric nuclear matter; nuclear astrophysics; nuclear matter in neutron stars; nucleon-nucleon interactions; neutron stars & pulsars

Citation Formats

Beloin, Spencer, Han, Sophia, Steiner, Andrew W., and Page, Dany. Constraining superfluidity in dense matter from the cooling of isolated neutron stars. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.97.015804.
Beloin, Spencer, Han, Sophia, Steiner, Andrew W., & Page, Dany. Constraining superfluidity in dense matter from the cooling of isolated neutron stars. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.97.015804
Beloin, Spencer, Han, Sophia, Steiner, Andrew W., and Page, Dany. Thu . "Constraining superfluidity in dense matter from the cooling of isolated neutron stars". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.97.015804. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1460179.
@article{osti_1460179,
title = {Constraining superfluidity in dense matter from the cooling of isolated neutron stars},
author = {Beloin, Spencer and Han, Sophia and Steiner, Andrew W. and Page, Dany},
abstractNote = {In this paper, we present a quantitative analysis of superfluidity and superconductivity in dense matter from observations of isolated neutron stars in the context of the minimal cooling model. Our new approach produces the best fit neutron triplet superfluid critical temperature, the best fit proton singlet superconducting critical temperature, and their associated statistical uncertainties. We find that the neutron triplet critical temperature is likely 2.09+4.37-1.41 x 108 K and that the proton singlet critical temperature is 7.59+2.48-5.81 x 109 K. However, we also show that this result only holds if the Vela neutron star is not included in the data set. If Vela is included, the gaps increase significantly to attempt to reproduce Vela's lower temperature given its young age. Further including neutron stars believed to have carbon atmospheres increases the neutron critical temperature and decreases the proton critical temperature. Finally, our method demonstrates that continued observations of isolated neutron stars can quantitatively constrain the nature of superfluidity in dense matter.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevC.97.015804},
journal = {Physical Review C},
number = 1,
volume = 97,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Jan 25 00:00:00 EST 2018},
month = {Thu Jan 25 00:00:00 EST 2018}
}

Journal Article:

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 23 works
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Figures / Tables:

Table I Table I: The data set used in the current work is adapted from the earlier work in Refs. [7, 42] and [51]. As in Ref. [7] we favor kinetic ages over spin-down ages where possible. The letters ‘s’ and ‘k’ in column 2 denote characteristic spin down age and kineticmore » age, respectively. References are given in column 2 only where our ages differ from the values used in Ref. [7]. We use H atmosphere (HA) fits to stars less than 105 years and blackbody (BB) fits for older stars. In some of the H atmosphere fits, a magnetic field was used (either as a fixed value or as a fit parameter), and this is indicated in the fourth column (mHA). Notes: (∗) This value was assumed not derived. (||) For the H atmosphere fit, we use the redshifted temperature from Ref. [34], 106.04, instead of the value reported as 105.94 in Ref. [51]. (‡) As in Ref. [7], we use a range determined by the colder blackbody component from Ref. [45] and the warmer blackbody component in Ref. [46]. (§) We have used the updated information from Ref. [47] as in Ref. [51] over the values in Ref. [7]. (¶) We use a H atmosphere fit for this source since a blackbody fit is not available. (5) As in Ref. [7] we use a range determined by the cold and warm components from the blackbody model in Ref. [50]. (†) Ref. [52] claims this is not a neutron star. (++) As discussed in Ref. [7], Ref. [53] suggests that this star may be accreting due to its spin-down behavior.« less

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Simultaneous fitting of neutron star structure and cooling data
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