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Cooling Limits from the Youngest Neutron Stars
Patrick Slane
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Abstract:
One of the primary means of constraining the cooling properties of neutron
stars, and thus the structure and composition of their deep interiors, is
through measurements of their X-ray properties. The youngest neutron stars
provided some of the strongest constraints, particularly in cases where the
total luminosity is low. However, the X-ray emission from young neutron stars
is often dominated by nonthermal emission. Thus, high-sensitivity
observations and subsequent spectral modeling are necessary to confidently
identify the emission, or limits to the emission, directly from the stellar
surface. Here I summarize recent work on establishing the temperature
properties of the youngest neutron stars.
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