Related papers: Compositional Freeze-Out of Neutron Star Crusts
The accumulation of accreted matter onto the neutron star surface triggers exothermic reactions in the crust. The heat released as a result influences the luminosity exhibited by the X-ray transient. The most common approach to the kinetics…
Neutron stars in low-mass binary systems are subject to accretion. The common assumption in studying the properties of the neutron star crust is the fully accreted crust approximation. However, observations of some X-ray transient sources…
Neutron stars in Low Mass X-ray Binaries (LMXBs) can accrete matter onto their surface from the companion star. Transiently accreting neutron stars go through alternating phases of active accretion outbursts and quiescence. X-ray…
We discuss the effect of compression on Urca shells in the ocean and crust of accreting neutron stars, especially in superbursting sources. We find that Urca shells may be deviated from chemical equilibrium in neutron stars which accrete at…
Based on an extended nuclear statistical equilibrium model, we investigate the properties of non-accreted crusts of young and warm neo-neutron stars, i.e., of finite-temperature inhomogeneous dense matter in beta equilibrium. An interesting…
We study the effect of physics input on thermal evolution of neutron stars in soft X-ray transients (SXTs). In particular, we consider different modern models of the sources of deep crustal heating during accretion episodes and the effects…
A neutron star in a long-lived, low-mass binary can easily accrete enough matter to replace its entire crust. Previous authors noted that an accreted crust, being formed from the burning of accreted hydrogen and helium, allows a series of…
We review the main neutrino emission mechanisms in neutron star crusts and cores. Among them are the well-known reactions such as the electron-positron annihilation, plasmon decay, neutrino bremsstrahlung of electrons colliding with atomic…
The equation of state of the neutron-star outer crust is sensitive to nuclear mass predictions and provides a direct connection to properties of nuclei throughout the nuclide map, including those beyond experimental reach. We quantify the…
We describe a new method to incorporate thermonuclear heating in the envelope of accreting neutron star into long term simulations of their thermal evolution. We obtain boundary conditions for the heat exchange between the envelope and the…
Observed temperatures of transiently accreting neutron stars in the quiescent state are generally believed to be supported by deep crustal heating, associated with non-equilibrium exothermic reactions in the crust. Traditionally, these…
A neutron star is born as a hot, lepton-rich protoneutron star (PNS) and cools via neutrino emission, eventually allowing heavy ions in the outer layers to crystallize into a solid crust. We develop a simple analytic estimate for the onset…
The study of neutron stars is a topic of central interest in the investigation of the properties of strongly compressed hadronic matter. Whereas in heavy-ion collisions the fireball, created in the collision zone, contains very hot matter,…
Heating associated with non-equilibrium nuclear reactions in accreting neutron-star crusts is reconsidered, taking into account suppression of neutrino losses demonstrated recently by Gupta et al. Two initial compositions of the nuclear…
The structure of the crust of a neutron star is completely determined by the experimentally measured nuclear masses up to a density of the order of 10^11 g.cm^{-3}. At higher densities, the composition of the crust still remains uncertain,…
The excited-state structure of atomic nuclei can modify nuclear processes in stellar environments. In this work, we study the influence of nuclear excitations on Urca cooling (repeated back-and-forth beta decay and electron capture in a…
The interior of a neutron star (NS) is usually assumed to be made of cold catalyzed matter. However, the outer layers are unlikely to remain in full equilibrium during the formation of the star and its cooling, especially after…
In this work we revisit the thermal relaxation process for neutron stars. Such process is associated with the thermal coupling between the core and the crust of neutron stars. The thermal relaxation, which takes place at around 10 -- 100…
We discuss the effect of chemical separation as matter freezes at the base of the ocean of an accreting neutron star, and the subsequent enrichment of the ocean in light elements and inward transport of heat through convective mixing. We…
Thermal evolution of neutron stars is known to depend on the properties of superdense matter in neutron star cores. We suggest a statistical analysis of isolated cooling middle-aged neutron stars and old transiently accreting…