SEARCH FOR THERMAL AFTERGLOW FROM PSR-0656+14

Thermal afterglow caused by transient energy releases in neutron stars could alter the X-ray pulse shape of pulsars by heating a portion of the crust so that more thermal X-rays are emitted at a particular phas e. We developed a method to look for such changes in X-ray pulsars. We put a typical lower limit of 3.9 x 10(31) ergs s(-1) (1.4 x 10(35) er gs in a 1 hr exposure) on the average excess X-ray luminosity required to see thermal afterglow from ROSAT data of PSR 0656 + 14 consisting of three separate observations lasting 3-5 hr. The lower limit obtaine d allows us to constrain the glitch parameters and the equation of sta te for neutron stars. In particular, a differentiation could be made b etween the vortex unpinning model and the starquake model for pulsar g litches if a search for thermal afterglow were performed contemporaneo usly with glitch observations.