Crustal cooling from KS 1731-260 14 years into quiescence
Abstract
The cooling of accretion-heated neutron star crusts after a return to quiescence provides a rare opportunity to investigate neutron star structure. The first source where crustal cooling was observed is KS 1731-260, which has been in quiescence since 2001. Our successful long-term Chandra monitoring of this source has shown that the crust must have a high thermal conductivity - the first constraint of this kind. However, several other crustal cooling sources have recently shown unexpected behavior in their cooling curves at late times. Here we are proposing a 150 ks observation of KS 1731-260 to determine the state of the crust 14 years into quiescence, allowing us to constrain the crust thickness (and hence surface gravity) and core temperature.
- Publication:
-
Chandra Proposal
- Pub Date:
- September 2014
- Bibcode:
- 2014cxo..prop.4361C