Neutron star long term cooling - Joule heating in magnetized neutron stars

TL;DR

This paper presents 2D simulations of neutron star cooling considering magnetic field decay and Joule heating, revealing significant effects on thermal evolution and surface temperature distribution, aligning with observational data.

Contribution

It introduces detailed 2D models that incorporate magnetic field decay and Joule heating to better understand neutron star cooling and temperature anisotropy.

Findings

Joule heating significantly influences neutron star thermal evolution.

Magnetic field decay causes notable temperature anisotropy.

Predicted surface temperature distributions match observational data.

Abstract

We present two-dimensional simulations for the cooling of neutron stars with strong magnetic fields (B > 1e13 Gauss). We study how the cooling curves are influenced by magnetic field decay. We show that the Joule heating effects are very large and in some cases control the thermal evolution. We characterize the temperature anisotropy induced by the magnetic field and predict the surface temperature distribution for the early and late stages of the evolution of isolated neutron stars, comparing our results with available observational data of isolated neutron stars.