No Arabic abstract
In this review, I present a brief summary of the impact of nucleon pairing at supra-nuclear densities on the cooling of neutron stars. I also describe how the recent observation of the cooling of the neutron star in the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A may provide us with the first direct evidence for the occurrence of such pairing. It also implies a size of the neutron 3P-F2 energy gap of the order of 0.1 MeV.
We study the axion cooling of neutron stars within the Dine-Fischler-Srednicki-Zhitnitsky (DFSZ) model, which allows for tree level coupling of electrons to the axion {and locks the Peccei-Quinn charges of fermions via an angle parameter}. This extends our previous study [Phys. Rev. D 93, 065044 (2016)] limited to hadronic models of axions. We explore the two-dimensional space of axion parameters within the DFSZ model by comparing the theoretical cooling models with the surface temperatures of a few stars with measured surface temperatures. It is found that axions masses $m_age 0.06$ to 0.12 eV can be excluded by x-ray observations of thermal emission of neutron stars (in particular by those of Cas A), the precise limiting value depending on the angle parameter of the DFSZ model. It is also found that axion emission by electron bremsstrahlung in neutron star crusts is negligible except for the special case where neutron Peccei-Quinn charge is small enough, so that the coupling of neutrons to axions can be neglected.
The study of neutron stars is a topic of central interest in the investigation of the properties of strongly compressed hadronic matter. Whereas in heavy-ion collisions the fireball, created in the collision zone, contains very hot matter, with varying density depending on the beam energy, neutron stars largely sample the region of cold and dense matter with the exception of the very short time period of the existence of the proto-neutron star. Therefore, neutron star physics, in addition to its general importance in astrophysics, is a crucial complement to heavy-ion physics in the study of strongly interacting matter. In the following, model approaches will be introduced to calculate properties of neutron stars that incorporate baryons and quarks. These approaches are also able to describe the state of matter over a wide range of temperatures and densities, which is essential if one wants to connect and correlate star observables and results from heavy-ion collisions. The effect of exotic particles and quark cores on neutron star properties will be considered. In addition to the gross properties of the stars like their masses and radii their expected inner composition is quite sensitive to the models used. The effect of the composition can be studied through the analysis of the cooling curve of the star. In addition, we consider the effect of rotation, as in this case the particle composition of the star can be modified quite drastically.
Observations of thermal radiation from neutron stars can potentially provide information about the states of supranuclear matter in the interiors of these stars with the aid of the theory of neutron-star thermal evolution. We review the basics of this theory for isolated neutron stars with strong magnetic fields, including most relevant thermodynamic and kinetic properties in the stellar core, crust, and blanketing envelopes.
We construct parameter sets of the relativistic mean-field model fitted to the recent constraints on the asymmetry energy $J$ and the slope parameter $L$ for pure neutron matter. We find cases of unphysical behaviour, i.e. the appearance of negative pressures, for stiff parameter sets with low values of the effective mass $m^*/m$. In some cases the equation of state of pure neutron matter turns out to be outside the allowed band given by chiral effective field theory. The mass-radius relations of neutron stars for all acceptable parameter sets shows a maximum mass in excess of $2M_odot$ being compatible with pulsar mass measurements. Given the constraints on the model in the low-density regime coming from chiral effective theory, we find that the radius of a $1.4M_odot$ neutron star is nearly independent on the value of $L$. This is in contrast to some previous claims for a strong connection of the slope parameter with the radius of a neutron star. In fact, the mass-radius relation turns out to depend only on the isoscalar parameters of symmetric matter. The constraints of GW170817 on the tidal deformability and on the radius are also discussed.
We model neutron star cooling with several microscopic nuclear equations of state based on different nucleon-nucleon interactions and three-body forces, and compatible with the recent GW170817 neutron star merger event. They all feature strong direct Urca processes. We find that all models are able to describe well the current set of cooling data for isolated neutron stars, provided that large and extended proton 1S0 gaps and no neutron 3PF2 gaps are active in the stellar matter. We then analyze the neutron star mass distributions predicted by the different models and single out the preferred ones.