Hubble Space Telescope Nondetection of PSR J2144–3933: The Coldest Known Neutron Star<sup>∗</sup>

Guillot, Sebastien; Pavlov, G. G.; Reyes, Claudia; Reisenegger, Andreas; Rodriguez, L.; Rangelov, Blagoy; Kargaltsev, Oleg

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab0f38

Cited by 47 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 52 publications

(64 reference statements)

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“…The tightest upper bound on nn comes from the coldest NS that has been observed, PSR J2144−3933 [20]. As in Ref.…”

mentioning

confidence: 66%

“…As in Ref. [20], we can determine an upper bound on this NS's temperature by modelling its spectral flux density as…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The non-trivial phase space distribution of the mirror neutrons complicates the problem and we defer an analysis to future work [21]. The lifetime of PSR J2144−3933 is estimated to be 3×10 8 yr [20], cutting off our exclusion at nn = 6.2 × 10 −12 eV.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Neutron Star Internal Heating Constraints on Mirror Matter

2021

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Mirror sectors have been proposed to address the problems of dark matter, baryogenesis, and the neutron lifetime anomaly. In this work we study a new, powerful probe of mirror neutrons: neutron star temperatures. When neutrons in the neutron star core convert to mirror neutrons during collisions, the vacancies left behind in the nucleon Fermi seas are refilled by more energetic nucleons, releasing immense amounts of heat in the process. We derive a new constraint on the allowed strength of neutron-mirror-neutron mixing from observations of the coldest (sub-40,000 Kelvin) neutron star, PSR 2144−3933. Our limits compete with laboratory searches for neutronmirror-neutron transitions but apply to a range of mass splittings between the neutron and mirror neutron that is 19 orders of magnitude larger. This heating mechanism, also pertinent to other neutron disappearance channels such as exotic neutron decay, provides a compelling physics target for upcoming ultraviolet, optical and infrared telescopes to study thermal emissions of cold neutron stars.

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“…The tightest upper bound on nn comes from the coldest NS that has been observed, PSR J2144−3933 [20]. As in Ref.…”

mentioning

confidence: 66%

“…As in Ref. [20], we can determine an upper bound on this NS's temperature by modelling its spectral flux density as…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Neutron Star Internal Heating Constraints on Mirror Matter

2021

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“…Assuming the blackbody spectrum, the authors in Ref. [30] obtained an upper limit on the surface temperature of J2144-3933: T ∞ s < 4.2 × 10 4 K. This is the lowest limit on the surface temperature of NSs for the moment.…”

Section: Observations Of Neutron Star Temperaturesmentioning

confidence: 93%

Cooling theory faced with old warm neutron stars: role of non-equilibrium processes with proton and neutron gaps

Yanagi

Hamaguchi

2020

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Recent observations have found several candidates for old warm neutron stars whose surface temperatures are above the prediction of the standard neutron star cooling scenario, and thus require some heating mechanism. Motivated by these observations, we study the nonequilibrium beta process in the minimal cooling scenario of neutron stars, which inevitably occurs in pulsars. This out-of-equilibrium process yields the late time heating in the core of a neutron star, called the rotochemical heating, and significantly changes the time evolution of the neutron star surface temperature. To perform a realistic analysis of this heating effect, we include the singlet proton and triplet neutron pairing gaps simultaneously in the calculation of the rate and emissivity of this process, where the dependence of these pairing gaps on the nucleon density is also taken into account. We then compare the predicted surface temperature of neutron stars with the latest observational data. We show the simultaneous inclusion of both proton and neutron gaps is advantageous for the explanation of the old warm neutron stars since it enhances the heating effect. It is then found that the observed surface temperatures of the old warm millisecond pulsars, J2124-3358 and J0437-4715, are explained for various choices of nucleon gap models. The same setup is compatible with the observed temperatures of ordinary pulsars including old warm ones, J0108-1431 and B0950+08, by choosing the initial rotational period of each neutron star accordingly. In particular, the upper limit on the surface temperature of J2144-3933 can be satisfied if its initial period is 10 ms.

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“…On the otter hand, observations of slow pulsar J2144−3933 (P = 8.5 s) with τ c = 3.3 Gyr imply solely an upper bound T < 4.2 × 10 4 K [107] which disfavors some of heating mechanisms but still remains compatible with n−n transformation with τ ε > 6•10 16 year or so. However, the suppressed thermal spectrum in PSR J2144−3933 can be related also to uncertain environmental factors, and it would be premature to derive any serious conclusion.…”

Section: Effects Of Slow N − N Transformation: τ ε > T Umentioning

confidence: 94%

Neutron-mirror neutron mixing and neutron stars

et al. 2021

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The oscillation of neutron n into mirror neutron $$n'$$ n ′ , its mass degenerate partner from dark mirror sector, can gradually transform the neutron stars into the mixed stars consisting in part of mirror dark matter. In quark stars $$n-n'$$ n - n ′ transitions are suppressed. We study the structure of mixed stars and derive the mass-radius scaling relations between the configurations of purely neutron star and maximally mixed star (MMS) containing equal amounts of ordinary and mirror components. In particular, we show that the MMS masses can be at most $$M^{\mathrm{max}}_{NS}/\sqrt{2}$$ M NS max / 2 , where $$M^\mathrm{max}_{NS}$$ M NS max is a maximum mass of a pure neutron star allowed by a given equation of state. We evaluate $$n-n'$$ n - n ′ transition rate in neutron stars, and show that various astrophysical limits on pulsar properties exclude the transition times in a wide range $$10^{5}\,\text {year}< \tau _\varepsilon < 10^{15}\,\text {year}$$ 10 5 year < τ ε < 10 15 year . For short transition times, $$\tau _\varepsilon < 10^5$$ τ ε < 10 5 year, the different mixed stars of the same mass can have different radii, depending on their age, which possibility can be tested by the NICER measurements. We also discuss subtleties related with the possible existence of mixed quark stars, and possible implications for the gravitational waves from the neutron star mergers and associated electromagnetic signals.

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Hubble Space Telescope Nondetection of PSR J2144–3933: The Coldest Known Neutron Star^∗

Cited by 47 publications

References 52 publications

Neutron Star Internal Heating Constraints on Mirror Matter

Neutron Star Internal Heating Constraints on Mirror Matter

Cooling theory faced with old warm neutron stars: role of non-equilibrium processes with proton and neutron gaps

Neutron-mirror neutron mixing and neutron stars

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Hubble Space Telescope Nondetection of PSR J2144–3933: The Coldest Known Neutron Star∗

Cited by 47 publications

References 52 publications

Neutron Star Internal Heating Constraints on Mirror Matter

Neutron Star Internal Heating Constraints on Mirror Matter

Cooling theory faced with old warm neutron stars: role of non-equilibrium processes with proton and neutron gaps

Neutron-mirror neutron mixing and neutron stars

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Hubble Space Telescope Nondetection of PSR J2144–3933: The Coldest Known Neutron Star^∗