Thermal afterglow from transient energy release in neutron stars

Abstract

We consider thermal afterglow from transient energy releases in neutron stars, such as may result from glitches or gamma-ray bursts. If observable, thermal afterglow may provide important information on the nature of these events and on neutron star structure. For standard neutron star models, the energy released is either reradiated within a short time of at most hours for energy release near the surface, or most of the energy is stored in the deep interior and then reradiated over thousands of years. Intermediate time scales of order months are possible for afterglow, but only when the prompt afterglow accounts for a very small fraction of the total energy release, and enormous energy releases ~ 10 42 ergs are required to make the afterglow last much longer than a few hours. An observational program to detect afterglow will need to accommodate short time scales.