Cooling of Neutron Stars with Strong Toroidal Magnetic Fields

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We present models of temperature distribution in the crust of a neutron star in the presence of a strong toroidal component superposed to the poloidal component of the magnetic field. The presence of such a toroidal field hinders heat flow toward the surface in a large part of the crust. As a result, the neutron star surface presents two warm regions surrounded by extended cold regions and has a thermal luminosity much lower than in the case the magnetic field is purely poloidal. We apply these models to calculate the thermal evolution of such neutron stars and show that the lowered photon luminosity naturally extends their life-time as detectable thermal X-ray sources.
9 pages, 10 figures; to appear in proceedings of the conference "Isolated Neutron Stars: From the Interior to the Surface", eds. S. Zane, R. Turolla, D. Page; Astrophysics & Space Science in press

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