Superfluidity and neutron star crust matter

In this work we study the properties of neutron star crusts, where matter is expected to consist of nuclei surrounded by superfluid neutrons and a homogeneous background of relativistic electrons. Using a modern meson-exchange potential in the framework of a local-density approximation we calculate the neutronic specific heat accounting for various nuclear shapes. We find that a realistic nucleon-nucleon potential leads to an increase in the neutronic specific heat with respect to what is obtained with more phenomenological effective forces. The increase is largest for the nonspherical phase of the neutron star crust. The implications for the thermal history of young neutron stars are discussed.