{
  "id": "2011.09354",
  "version": "v1",
  "published": "2020-11-18T15:43:35.000Z",
  "updated": "2020-11-18T15:43:35.000Z",
  "title": "Heat release in accreting neutron stars",
  "authors": [
    "Mikhail E. Gusakov",
    "Andrey I. Chugunov"
  ],
  "comment": "5 pages, 1 figure, 1 table + 5 pages supplemental material",
  "categories": [
    "astro-ph.HE",
    "nucl-th"
  ],
  "abstract": "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 formula for the heating efficiency, assuming that an NS has a fully accreted crust. We further show that, within the recently proposed thermodynamically consistent approach to the accreted crust, the heat release can be parametrized by the only one parameter -- the pressure $P_{\\rm oi}$ at the outer-inner crust interface (as we argue, this pressure should not necessarily coincide with the neutron-drip pressure). We discuss possible values of $P_{\\rm oi}$ for a selection of nuclear models that account for shell effects, and determine the net heat release and its distribution in the crust as a function of $P_{\\rm oi}$. We conclude that the heat release should be reduced by a factor of few in comparison to previous works.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v1",
      "updated": "2020-11-18T15:43:35.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "keywords": [
      "accreting neutron stars",
      "nonequilibrium nuclear reactions",
      "outer-inner crust interface",
      "simple universal formula",
      "accreted crust"
    ],
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 5,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable"
    }
  }
}