Powering Anomalous X-ray Pulsars by Neutron Star Cooling

Abstract

Using recently calculated analytic models for the thermal structure of ultramagnetized neutron stars, we estimate the thermal fluxes from young ($t\sim 1000$ yr) ultramagnetized ($B\sim 10^{15}$ G) cooling neutron stars. We find that the pulsed X-ray emission from objects such as 1E 1841-045 and 1E 2259+586 as well as many soft-gamma repeaters can be explained by photon cooling if the neutron star possesses a thin insulating envelope of matter of low atomic weight at densities $\rho <10^7-10^8$ g/cm${}^3$. The total mass of this insulating layer is $M\sim 10^{-11}-10^{-8}{M}_{\odot }$.

8 pages, 1 figure, to appear in Ap.J. Letters (one reference entry corrected, no other changes)

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• Hydrogen Phases on the Surface of a Strongly Magnetized Neutron Star
• Kes 73: A Young Supernova Remnant with an X-ray Bright, Radio-quiet Central Source
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