Afterburst thermal relaxation in neutron star crusts

Abstract

We study thermal relaxation in a neutron star after internal heating events (outbursts) in the crust. We consider thin and thick spherically symmetric heaters, superfluid and non-superfluid crusts, stars with open and forbidden direct Urca processes in their cores. In particular, we analyze long-term thermal relaxation after deep crustal heating produced by nuclear transformations in fully or partly accreted crusts of transiently accreting neutron stars. This long-term relaxation has a typical relaxation time and an overall finite duration time for the crust to thermally equilibrate with the core. Neutron superfluidity in the inner crust greatly affects the relaxation if the heater is located in the inner crust. It shortens and unifies the time of emergence of thermal wave from the heater to the surface. This is important for the interpretation of observed outbursts of magnetars and transiently accreting neutron stars in quasi-persistent low-mass X-ray binaries.

15 pages, 10 figures, Astrophysics and Space Science, published

References in corpus (10)

• Models of crustal heating in accreting neutron stars
• Systematic study of magnetar outbursts
• Cooling of Accretion-Heated Neutron Stars
• Statistical theory of thermal evolution of neutron stars
• Equation of state of low--density neutron matter and the ${}^1{S}_0$ pairing gap
• Magnetars as cooling neutron stars with internal heating
• A strongly heated neutron star in the transient Z source MAXI J0556-332
• Heating and cooling of magnetars with accreted envelopes
• Thermal emission of neutron stars with internal heaters
• The thermal state of KS 1731-260 after 14.5 years in quiescence

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Tidal Deformabilities and Neutron Star Mergers
• 3D modelling of magneto-thermal evolution of neutron stars: method and test cases
• Crust structure and thermal evolution of neutron stars in soft X-ray transients
• Continued cooling of the accretion-heated neutron star crust in the X-ray transient IGR J17480-2446 located in the globular cluster Terzan 5
• The multi-outburst activity of the magnetar in Westerlund I
• Gapless neutron superfluidity can explain the late time cooling of transiently accreting neutron stars
• Model of heat diffusion in the outer crust of bursting neutron stars
• Gapless neutron superfluidity in the crust of the accreting neutron stars KS 1731-260 and MXB 1659-29
• Fast neutron star cooling in light of the PREX-2 experiment
• Examining the possibility of a thick crust in the compact stellar object HESS J1731-347