Abstract
The effect of magnetic field decay on the chemical heating and thermal evolution of neutron stars is discussed in this paper. Our main goal is to study how the chemical heating mechanism and thermal evolution are changed by the field decay and how the magnetic field decay is modified by the thermal evolution. We compare stars cooling with chemical heating with one without chemical heating and find that the decay of the magnetic field is delayed significantly by the chemical heating. We find that the effect of chemical heating has been suppressed through the decaying magnetic field by the spin-down of the stars at a later stage. Compared with typical chemical heating, we find the decay of the magnetic field can even cause the surface temperature to turn down at an older age. When we discuss the cooling of neutron stars, we should consider the coupling effect of the magnetic field and the rotational evolution of neutron stars on the heating mechanisms.