Superfluid heat conduction and the cooling of magnetized neutron stars

Collective modes in the superfluid neutron matter, the superfluid phonons, can influence heat conduction in the inner crust of magnetized neutron stars. Their effect can be especially important for neutron stars with large magnetic fields because the electronic heat conductivity perpendicular to the magnetic field is suppressed. In the absence of efficient heat transport transverse to the magnetic field, a star can have a temperature anisotropy at the surface. This novel mechanism for heat conduction, can however limit the temperature anisotropy. It turns out that the cooling curves (plots of temperature versus age) of magnetized neutron stars, drawn with and without including superfluid heat conduction, also show differences that may be observationally discernible.