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Cooling neutron star in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant: evidence for superfluidity in the core

Cooling neutron star in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant: evidence for superfluidity in the core
Cooling neutron star in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant: evidence for superfluidity in the core
According to recent results of Ho & Heinke, the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant contains a young (?330-yr-old) neutron star (NS) which has carbon atmosphere and shows notable decline of the effective surface temperature. We report a new (2010 November) Chandra observation which confirms the previously reported decline rate. The decline is naturally explained if neutrons have recently become superfluid (in triplet state) in the NS core, producing a splash of neutrino emission due to Cooper pair formation (CPF) process that currently accelerates the cooling. This scenario puts stringent constraints on poorly known properties of NS cores: on density dependence of the temperature Tcn(?) for the onset of neutron superfluidity [Tcn(?) should have a wide peak with maximum ? (7–9) × 108 K]; on the reduction factor q of CPF process by collective effects in superfluid matter (q > 0.4) and on the intensity of neutrino emission before the onset of neutron superfluidity (30–100 times weaker than the standard modified Urca process). This is serious evidence for nucleon superfluidity in NS cores that comes from observations of cooling NSs
1745-3925
L108-L112
Shternin, Peter S.
be9ada72-0168-497a-9602-d5d18839749c
Yakovlev, Dmitry G.
4d01543a-2614-4f42-a523-f393ef7e5fdc
Heinke, Craig O.
d7382ed2-cb85-4e15-b2d9-296fc8b6221d
Ho, Wynn C.G.
d78d4c52-8f92-4846-876f-e04a8f803a45
Patnaude, Daniel J.
a1e42932-e60f-40f1-9e36-2b37f0f8749e
Shternin, Peter S.
be9ada72-0168-497a-9602-d5d18839749c
Yakovlev, Dmitry G.
4d01543a-2614-4f42-a523-f393ef7e5fdc
Heinke, Craig O.
d7382ed2-cb85-4e15-b2d9-296fc8b6221d
Ho, Wynn C.G.
d78d4c52-8f92-4846-876f-e04a8f803a45
Patnaude, Daniel J.
a1e42932-e60f-40f1-9e36-2b37f0f8749e

Shternin, Peter S., Yakovlev, Dmitry G., Heinke, Craig O., Ho, Wynn C.G. and Patnaude, Daniel J. (2011) Cooling neutron star in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant: evidence for superfluidity in the core. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, 412 (1), L108-L112. (doi:10.1111/j.1745-3933.2011.01015.x).

Record type: Article

Abstract

According to recent results of Ho & Heinke, the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant contains a young (?330-yr-old) neutron star (NS) which has carbon atmosphere and shows notable decline of the effective surface temperature. We report a new (2010 November) Chandra observation which confirms the previously reported decline rate. The decline is naturally explained if neutrons have recently become superfluid (in triplet state) in the NS core, producing a splash of neutrino emission due to Cooper pair formation (CPF) process that currently accelerates the cooling. This scenario puts stringent constraints on poorly known properties of NS cores: on density dependence of the temperature Tcn(?) for the onset of neutron superfluidity [Tcn(?) should have a wide peak with maximum ? (7–9) × 108 K]; on the reduction factor q of CPF process by collective effects in superfluid matter (q > 0.4) and on the intensity of neutrino emission before the onset of neutron superfluidity (30–100 times weaker than the standard modified Urca process). This is serious evidence for nucleon superfluidity in NS cores that comes from observations of cooling NSs

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Published date: 11 March 2011
Organisations: Applied Mathematics

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 177037
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/177037
ISSN: 1745-3925
PURE UUID: 6ac1226a-b4b5-4fba-a7dd-48a2f4c00f89
ORCID for Wynn C.G. Ho: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-6089-6836

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Date deposited: 15 Mar 2011 10:17
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:42

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Contributors

Author: Peter S. Shternin
Author: Dmitry G. Yakovlev
Author: Craig O. Heinke
Author: Wynn C.G. Ho ORCID iD
Author: Daniel J. Patnaude

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