Related papers: Thermonuclear Heating of Accreting Neutron Stars
Neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries are thought to be heated up by accretion-induced exothermic nuclear reactions in the crust. The energy release and the location of the heating sources are important ingredients of the thermal…
Observed thermal emission from accreting neutron stars (NSs) in a quiescent state is believed to be powered by nonequilibrium nuclear reactions that heat the stellar crust (deep crustal heating paradigm). We derive a simple universal…
We present a global linear stability analysis of nuclear fuel accumulating on the surface of an accreting neutron star and we identify the conditions under which thermonuclear bursts are triggered. The analysis reproduces all the recognized…
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…
Neutron stars in mass-transferring binaries are accreting the hydrogen and helium rich matter from the surfaces of their companions. This article simply explains the physics associated with how that material eventually fuses to form heavier…
A quasi-statistical equilibrium model is constructed to simulate the multicomponent composition of the crust of an accreting neutron star. The ashes of rp-process nucleosynthesis are driven by accretion through a series of electron…
The deep crustal heating, associated with exothermal nuclear reactions, is believed to be a key parameter for describing the thermal evolution of accreting neutron stars. In this paper, we present the first thermodynamically consistent…
Near the surface of any neutron star there is a thin heat blanketing envelope that produces substantial thermal insulation of warm neutron star interiors and that relates the internal temperature of the star to its effective surface…
The observed thermal relaxation of transiently accreting neutron stars during quiescence periods in low-mass X-ray binaries suggests the existence of unknown heat sources in the shallow layers of neutron-star crust. Making use of existing…
Thermonuclear burning on the surface of accreting neutron stars is observed to stabilize at accretion rates almost an order of magnitude lower than theoretical models predict. One way to resolve this discrepancy is by including a base…
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…
We perform a self-consistent calculation of the thermal structure in the crust of a superbursting neutron star. In particular, we follow the nucleosynthetic evolution of an accreted fluid element from its deposition into the atmosphere down…
The temperature in the crust of an accreting neutron star, which comprises its outermost kilometer, is set by heating from nuclear reactions at large densities, neutrino cooling, and heat transport from the interior. The heated crust has…
We present a brief, observational review about the study of the cooling behaviour of accretion-heated neutron stars and the inferences about the neutron-star crust and core that have been obtained from these studies. Accretion of matter…
Nuclear reactions in accreting neutron-star crusts and the heat release accompanying them are studied, under different assumptions concerning the composition of the outermost layer formed of the ashes of X-ray bursts. Particular examples of…
We show that, in order to determine the equation of state of the inner crust of an accreting neutron star, one should minimize not the Gibbs free energy, as it is generally assumed in the literature, but a different thermodynamic potential…
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…
Now 50 years since the existence of the neutron star crust was proposed, we review the current understanding of the nuclear physics of the outer layers of accreting neutron stars. Nuclei produced during nuclear burning replace the nascent…
Recently, crust cooling times have been measured for neutron stars after extended outbursts. These observations are very sensitive to the thermal conductivity $\kappa$ of the crust and strongly suggest that $\kappa$ is large. We perform…
We study the "minimal" cooling scenario of superfluid neutron stars with nucleon cores, where the direct Urca process is forbidden and the enhanced cooling is produced by the neutrino emission due to Cooper pairing of neutrons. Extending…