Hybrid cooling of the Cassiopeia A neutron star

Abstract

ABSTRACT The observed rapid cooling of the neutron star Cassiopeia A is usually interpreted as being caused by transitions of neutrons and protons in the star’s core from the normal state to the superfluid and superconducting state. However, this so-called ‘minimal’ cooling paradigm faces the problem of numerically simulating the observed anomalously fast drop in the neutron star surface temperature using theoretical neutrino energy losses from superfluid neutrons. As a solution to this problem, I propose a somewhat more complex cooling model, in which, in addition to superfluid neutrons, direct Urca processes from a very small central part of the neutron star core are also involved. Numerical simulations of the cooling trajectory in this scenario show excellent agreement with observations of the Cassiopeia A neutron star. The proposed cooling scenario unambiguously relates the used equation of state and the mass of the neutron star. For a neutron star constructed according to BSk25 equation of state, the most appropriate are the mass $M=1.62\, {\rm M}_{\odot }$ and the radius R = 12.36 km. If BSk24 equation of state is used, then the most suitable solution is $M=1.60\, {\rm M}_{\odot }$ and R = 12.55 km.