2017MNRAS.467.3598O

We have derived analytic expressions that describe cooling of isolated neutron stars with nucleon cores after reaching the state of internal thermal relaxation. The results are valid for a wide class of equations of state of nucleonic matter and, in this sense, are universal. Moreover, they accurately reproduce the evolution of neutron stars at the neutrino and photon cooling stages as well as during transition from one stage to the other. These results greatly simplify theoretical analysis of internal structure of cooling neutron stars. For illustration, we analyse the thermal state of the bright nearby neutron star RX J1856.5-3754 and present arguments that this star has already left the neutrino cooling stage and contains superfluidity of neutrons and protons inside. We discuss possible efficiency of its neutrino cooling and heat capacity of its core.