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We present Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer and Swift observations made during thefinal three weeks of the 2006-2007 outburst of the super-Eddington neutron star(NS) transient XTE J1701-462, as well as Chandra and XMM-Newton observationscovering the first ~800 days of the subsequent quiescent phase. The sourcetransitioned quickly from active accretion to quiescence, with the luminositydropping by over 3 orders of magnitude in ~13 days. The spectra obtained duringquiescence exhibit both a thermal component, presumed to originate in emissionfrom the NS surface, and a non-thermal component of uncertain origin, which hasshown large and irregular variability. We interpret the observed decay of theinferred effective surface temperature of the NS in quiescence as the coolingof the NS crust after having been heated and brought out of thermal equilibriumwith the core during the outburst. The interpretation of the data iscomplicated by an apparent temporary increase in temperature ~220 days intoquiescence, possibly due to an additional spurt of accretion. We derive anexponential decay timescale of ~120 (+30/-20) days for the inferred temperature(excluding observations affected by the temporary increase). This shorttimescale indicates a highly conductive NS crust. Further observations areneeded to confirm whether the crust is still slowly cooling or has alreadyreached thermal equilibrium with the core at a surface temperature of ~125 eV.The latter would imply a high equilibrium bolometric thermal luminosity of~5x10^{33} erg/s for an assumed distance of 8.8 kpc.

Rapid Cooling of the Neutron Star in the Quiescent Super-Eddington Transient XTE J1701-462