Structure and cooling of neutron stars: nuclear pairing and superfluid effects

We investigate structure and cooling properties of neutron stars making use of microscopic descriptions of nuclear matter based on realistic nucleon-nucleon interactions. The equation of state is obtained from solutions of the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock equation for interacting nucleons at zero temperature. The structure aspects are described by the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equation for hydrostatic equilibrium of non-rotating stars. Furthermore we have also solved Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) pairing gap equations to identify superfluid states in neutronic matter. We obtain mass-radius behavior and cooling curves consistent with current understanding.