Standard cooling of rapidly rotating isolated neutron stars in 2D

TL;DR

This paper introduces a 2D thermal evolution code for rotating neutron stars, revealing complex temperature dynamics influenced by rotation, EOS, and crustal heat diffusion.

Contribution

Development of 'NSCool 2D Rot', a new code for simulating thermal evolution of rotating neutron stars in full general relativity.

Findings

Temperature distribution shows complex time-dependent behavior.

Formation of a 'heat blob' in the crust affects thermal evolution.

Latitude dependence influences heat diffusion timescales.

Abstract

We study the thermal evolution of axisymmetric rotating neutron stars in full general relativity. To this aim we develop "NSCool 2D Rot", a major upgrade of the 1D neutron stars thermal evolution code "NSCool" by D. Page. As a first application of our new code we address the standard cooling of isolated neutron stars with rotation frequencies up to the mass shedding limit. We investigate the effects of the equation of state (EOS) by considering different combinations of core and crust EOSs. The results indicate complex time-dependent evolution of temperature distribution throughout the whole volume of the star and, in particular, in the crust. We show that most of that complexity can be attributed to the formation of a "heat blob" in the crust and to the latitude dependence of the heat diffusion timescale through the crust.