The Great Wall: Urca Cooling Layers in the Accreted NS Crust
arXiv:1802.06754 · doi:10.1051/epjconf/201817804004
Abstract
Accreting neutron stars host a number of astronomical observables which can be used to infer the properties of the underlying dense matter. These observables are sensitive to the heating and cooling processes taking place in the accreted neutron star (NS) crust. Within the past few years it has become apparent that electron-capture/beta-decay (urca) cycles can operate within the NS crust at high temperatures. Layers of nuclei undergoing urca cycling can create a thermal barrier, or Great Wall, between heating occurring deep in the crust and the regions above the urca layers. This paper briefly reviews the urca process and the implications for observables from accreting neutron stars.
Invited talk at Capture Gammay-Ray Spectroscopy 16 (Shanghai), to appear in EPJ Web of Conferences
References in corpus (10)
- Dependence of X-Ray Burst Models on Nuclear Reaction Rates
- Nucleosynthesis in Type I X-ray Bursts
- Cooling of Accretion-Heated Neutron Stars
- A strongly heated neutron star in the transient Z source MAXI J0556-332
- Thermonuclear Bursts with Short Recurrence Times from Neutron Stars Explained by Opacity-Driven Convection
- Urca cooling pairs in the neutron star ocean and their effect on superbursts
- The thermal state of KS 1731-260 after 14.5 years in quiescence
- Different accretion heating of the neutron star crust during multiple outbursts in MAXI J0556-332
- Constraints on Bygone Nucleosynthesis of Accreting Neutron Stars
- Carbon Synthesis in Steady-State Hydrogen and Helium Burning On Accreting Neutron Stars