  Recent years have seen some significant progress in theoretical studies of
physics of dense matter. Combined with the observational data now available
from the successful launch of Chandra and XMM/Newton X-ray space missions as
well as various lower-energy band observations, these developments now offer
the hope for distinguishing various competing neutron star thermal evolution
models. For instance, the latest theoretical and observational developments may
already exclude both nucleon and kaon direct Urca cooling. In this way we can
now have a realistic hope for determining various important properties, such as
the composition, superfluidity, the equation of state and stellar radius. These
developments should help us obtain deeper insight into the properties of dense
matter.

Astrophysics