2003/06/06 by D. G. Yakovlev, O. Y. Gnedin, A. D. Kaminker +2 · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.asr.2003.07.020
published as Adv.Space Res. 33 (2004) 523-530 · 10 pages, 3 figures, Proceedings of the 34th COSPAR Scientific Assembly (Adv. Sp. Res., accepted)
arxiv created 2003/06/06 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
The cooling theory of isolated neutron stars is reviewed. The main cooling regulators are discussed, first of all, operation of direct Urca process (or similar processes in exotic phases of dense matter) and superfluidity in stellar interiors. The prospects to constrain gross parameters of supranuclear matter in neutron-star interiors by confronting cooling theory with observations of isolated neutron stars are outlined. A related problem of thermal states of transiently accreting neutron stars with deep crustal heating of accreted matter is discussed in application to soft X-ray transients.