Short-range correlation effects on the neutron star cooling

Abstract

Short range correlations (SRC) have been known to be an important aspect of nuclear theory for some time. Recent works have re-ignited interest on this topic, particularly due to the fact that it has recently been demonstrated that SRC may be responsible for breaking pairing gaps in nuclear matter. In this work we revisit the concept of SRC for beta equilibrated matter in neutron stars. We construct two equivalent models, with and without SRC and proceed to investigate the thermal evolution of stars described by such models. We show that SRC play a major role in the thermal evolution of neutron stars. It will be shown that while the SRC largely leaves the macroscopic properties of the star unaltered, it significantly alters the proton fraction, thus leading to an early onset of the direct Urca (DU) process, which in turns leads to stars exhibiting much faster cooling.

7 pages, 6 figures

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