title: Neutron reactions in accreting neutron stars: a new pathway to efficient crust heating.
abstract: In our calculation of neutron star crust heating we include several key new model features. In earlier work electron capture (EC) only allowed neutron emission from the daughter ground state; here we calculate, in a deformed quasi-random-phase approximation (QRPA) model, EC decay rates to all states in the daughter that are allowed by Gamow-Teller selection rules and energetics. The subsequent branching ratios between the 1n,...,xn channels and the competing gamma decay are calculated in a Hauser-Feshbach model. In our multicomponent plasma model a single (EC, xn) reaction step can produce several neutron-deficient nuclei, each of which can further decay by (EC, xn). Hence, the neutron emission occurs more continuously with increasing depth as compared to that in a one-component plasma model.
authors.affiliation: Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratories, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
authors.forename: Sanjib S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: Toshihiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kawano
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Möller