SUPERFLUIDITY AND THERMAL RESPONSE OF NEUTRON-STAR CRUSTS

has been recently argued that observations of the thermal emission fro m young neutron stars have the potential for constraining their struct ure and thence the underlying equation of state of dense matter. The t hermal response of the crust of a neutron star to the rapid cooling of its core, however, depends critically on the superfluidity of matter in the crust. We here extended previous work on the specific heat of a nonuniform neutron superfluid in the inner crust of a neutron star by considering the possible presence of unusual nuclear shapes in its de eper layers and using a semiclassical model to determine the spatial b ehavior of the neutron pairing gap. We find that taking into account t he existence of a lattice of nuclei (in both spherical and unusual sha pes) in the sea of unbound neutrons increases significantly the diffus ion times across the crust and thence the cooling times of the surface of the star, as compared to the standard scenario with a uniform neut ron superfluid in the inner crust.