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Title: Crust-cooling Models Are Insensitive to the Crust–Core Transition Pressure for Realistic Equations of State

Abstract

Neutron stars cooling after sustained accretion outbursts provide unique information about the neutron star crust and underlying dense matter. Comparisons between astronomical observations of these cooling transients and model calculations of neutron star crust cooling have frequently been used to constrain neutron star properties such as the mass, radius, crust composition, and presence of nuclear pasta. These calculations often use a fixed pressure at which the crust–core transition happens, though this quantity depends on the dense matter equation of state. We demonstrate that varying the crust–core transition pressure in a manner consistent with adopting various equations of state results in modest changes to the crust-cooling light curve. Finally, this validates the approach adopted in most crust-cooling studies to date, where the neutron star mass and radius are varied while leaving the crust–core transition pressure constant.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]
  1. Ohio Univ., Athens, OH (United States); Joint Inst. for Nuclear Astrophysics (JINA), East Lansing, MI (United States). Center for the Evolution of the Elements (JINA-CEE)
  2. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States); Joint Inst. for Nuclear Astrophysics (JINA), East Lansing, MI (United States). Center for the Evolution of the Elements (JINA-CEE)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Ohio Univ., Athens, OH (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP); National Science Foundation (NSF)
OSTI Identifier:
1593726
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0019042; FG02-93ER40756; FG02-88ER40387; AST-1812838; PHY-1430152
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal (Online); Journal Volume: 882; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; equation of state; stars: neutron; X-rays: binaries

Citation Formats

Lalit, Sudhanva, Meisel, Zach, and Brown, Edward F. Crust-cooling Models Are Insensitive to the Crust–Core Transition Pressure for Realistic Equations of State. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab338c.
Lalit, Sudhanva, Meisel, Zach, & Brown, Edward F. Crust-cooling Models Are Insensitive to the Crust–Core Transition Pressure for Realistic Equations of State. United States. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab338c
Lalit, Sudhanva, Meisel, Zach, and Brown, Edward F. Thu . "Crust-cooling Models Are Insensitive to the Crust–Core Transition Pressure for Realistic Equations of State". United States. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab338c. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1593726.
@article{osti_1593726,
title = {Crust-cooling Models Are Insensitive to the Crust–Core Transition Pressure for Realistic Equations of State},
author = {Lalit, Sudhanva and Meisel, Zach and Brown, Edward F.},
abstractNote = {Neutron stars cooling after sustained accretion outbursts provide unique information about the neutron star crust and underlying dense matter. Comparisons between astronomical observations of these cooling transients and model calculations of neutron star crust cooling have frequently been used to constrain neutron star properties such as the mass, radius, crust composition, and presence of nuclear pasta. These calculations often use a fixed pressure at which the crust–core transition happens, though this quantity depends on the dense matter equation of state. We demonstrate that varying the crust–core transition pressure in a manner consistent with adopting various equations of state results in modest changes to the crust-cooling light curve. Finally, this validates the approach adopted in most crust-cooling studies to date, where the neutron star mass and radius are varied while leaving the crust–core transition pressure constant.},
doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/ab338c},
journal = {The Astrophysical Journal (Online)},
number = 2,
volume = 882,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Sep 05 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Thu Sep 05 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}

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text, January 2013


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text, January 2013


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text, January 2016


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text, January 2016


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text, January 2017


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text, January 2017


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text, January 2018


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text, January 2018


Domains and defects in nuclear "pasta"
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