Cooling of neutron stars
Abstract
On the basis of current physical understanding, it is impossible to predict with confidence the interior constitution of neutron stars. Cooling of neutron stars provides a possible way of discriminating among possible states of matter within them. In the standard picture of cooling by neutrino emission developed over the past quarter of a century, neutron stars are expected to cool relatively slowly if their cores are made up of nucleons, and to cool faster if matter is in an exotic state, such as a pion condensate, a kaon condensate, or quark matter. This view has recently been called into question by the discovery of a number of other processes that could lead to copious neutrino emission and rapid cooling.
- Publication:
-
Reviews of Modern Physics
- Pub Date:
- October 1992
- DOI:
- 10.1103/RevModPhys.64.1133
- Bibcode:
- 1992RvMP...64.1133P
- Keywords:
-
- Neutron Stars;
- Stellar Interiors;
- Stellar Radiation;
- Stellar Temperature;
- Cooling;
- Neutrinos;
- Nucleons;
- Stellar Evolution;
- Astrophysics