The Thermal Response of a Pulsar Glitch: The Nonspherically Symmetric Case

Abstract

We study the thermal evolutionof a pulsar after a glitch in which the energy is released from arelatively compact region. A set of relativistic thermal transport andenergy balance equations is used to study the thermal evolution,without making the assumption of spherical symmetry. We use an exactcooling model to solve this set of differential equations. Our resultscould differ significantly from those obtained under the assumptionof spherical symmetry. Even for young pulsars with a hot core likethe Vela pulsar, a detectable hot spot could be observed after aglitch if a large amount of energy is released in a small region closeto the surface of the star. The results suggest that the intensityvariation and the relative phases of hard X-ray emissions in differentepochs may provide important information on the equation of state.