Magnetars as cooling neutron stars with internal heating

A. D. Kaminker,1 D. G. Yakovlev,1 A. Y. Potekhin,1 N. Shibazaki,2 P. S. Shternin,1 O. Y. Gnedin3
1Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute, Politekhnicheskaya 26, 194021 St.Petersburg, Russia
2Rikkyo University, Tokyo 171-8501, Japan
3Department of Astronomy, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, U.S.A.

We study thermal structure and evolution of magnetars as cooling neutron stars with some phenomenological heating in a certain spherical layer inside them. We explore possible positions of this layer and possible heating rates which could explain high observable thermal luminosities of magnetars and would be consistent with the energy budget of neutron stars. We conclude that the heat source should be located in a magnetar's crust, at densities ρ <~ 1012 g cm-3. Otherwise the heat energy is mainly emitted in neutrinos and cannot warm up the surface.

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