Could this be a case similar to the “black widow pulsar” which actaully evapourated its companion star away entirely?

Or could this pulsar have formed through the merger of two white dwarf stars?

In either case, this scenario has taken place in a triple star syetem with only the sun-like star & milli-second pulsar remaining ..

Either of those options plausible &/or testable?

# Libraryguy on 15 May 2008 at 3:10 pm
Quick Question- What is the difference between a ‘cold’ and ‘hot’ neutron star?

I’m guessing time & / or temperature.

Like white dwarfs, neutron stars cannot fuse elements into energy and thus shine only by radiating away their massively hot temperatures they were born with.

A young – and hence still very* hot – neutron star would therefore be a bit different from one that has cooled down over the aeons.

The young hot neutron star or pulsar would have – usually – a far higher spin rate, immensely strong magnetic field, a searingly blue hot surface etc …

Vs

the old cold neutron star which would’ve spun down to a slower roatation or spin rate, had its magnetic field fade away a fair bit in intensity – and hence perhaps stopped pulsing, cooled down to a mere white or yellow hot surface etc .. (Ultimately, neutron stars and white dwarfs cool all the way to red heat and finally cold black dwarfs – but that will take longer than the cosmos has been around for yet! )

That’s just my guess anyway I’m not really 100% sure what you’re referring to here.

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* “very” is utterly inadequate at describing the extremes in play with neutron stars, pulsars & magnetars – but then no words really come close to describing them.