Neutron Stars as a Probe for Dense Matter

We study different stages of the neutron star cooling by computing neutron star properties at various temperatures and entropies using an effective chiral model including hadronic and quark degrees of freedom. Macroscopic properties of the star such as mass and radius are calculated and compared with observations. It can be seen that the effects of chiral restoration and deconfinement to quark matter in the core of the neutron star at different stages of the evolution can be significant for the evolution of the star and allow insight into the behavior of matter at extreme densities.