Heating and Cooling of Accreting Neutron Stars as a Probe of Neutron Star Interiors
S@INT Seminar
The alternate heating and cooling of transiently-accreting neutron stars offers a probe of the physics of their interiors. While accreting, nuclear reactions in the neutron star crust heat the crust. Observations of these neutron stars after accretion shuts off can follow the crust as it cools down, constraining the thermal and transport properties of the different layers. As much of the deposited energy flows inwards to the core, these observations also constrain the efficiency of the neutrino emission process in the core, and therefore core composition. In this talk, I will discuss what has been learned so far from observations of accreting neutron stars in quiescence, and the challenges and prospects for the future.
The speaker for this event will lead the meeting remotely. All interested graduate students and faculty are invited to attend by convening in the INT seminar room (C-421).
Participants are also welcome to join via Zoom. Zoom link will be available via announcement email, or by contacting: amccoy10[at]uw.edu or gsj6[at]uw.edu