Signal of quark deconfinement and thermal evolution of hybrid stars

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the deconfinement phase transition from hadron to quark matter in neutron star cores affects their thermal evolution, especially surface temperature changes during spin-down.

Contribution

It introduces a method to detect quark deconfinement signatures through surface temperature variations in neutron stars during their thermal evolution.

Findings

Deconfinement heating significantly impacts neutron star temperature profiles.

Surface temperature increases can indicate the occurrence of quark deconfinement.

The study provides a potential observational signature for quark matter in neutron stars.

Abstract

It is well known that neutron stars spin down due to magnetic dipole radiation. The deconfinement phase transition of hadron matter to quark matter is expected to occur in the dense cores of the stars during spin-down. The phase transition continuously takes place inducing not only structural changes but also energy release in case of a first-order phase transition. The generation of energy increases the internal energy of the stars which is called deconfinement heating. The temperature of the stars arise when the deconfinement heating appears in the cores. We explore the deconfinement signature by studying the changes of surface temperature in the thermal evolution process of neutron stars.