Neutron transfer reactions in accreting neutron stars

Abstract

I suggest a novel type of nuclear reactions in accreting neutron stars - neutron transfer, which is quantum tunneling of weakly bounded neutron from one nucleus to another. I estimate the rate of this process for fixed nuclei separation and then average the result over realistic distribution of nuclei to get the rate value for astrophysical conditions. The neutron transfer can modify reaction chains in accreting neutron stars, thus affecting their heating and cooling. In particular, it can suppress cooling by URCA pairs of nuclei, which is supposed to be crucial for the hottest neutron stars.

6 pages, 1 figure; accepted for publication in MNRAS:Letters

References in corpus (12)

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Cited by in corpus (12)

• Horizons: Nuclear Astrophysics in the 2020s and Beyond
• Experimental constraints on shallow heating in accreting neutron-star crusts
• Deep crustal heating for realistic compositions of thermonuclear ashes
• Crust of accreting neutron stars within simplified reaction network
• $\beta$-decay of ${}^{61}$V and its Role in Cooling Accreted Neutron Star Crusts
• Black Dwarf Supernova in the Far Future
• The Impact of Neutron Transfer Reactions on Heating and Cooling of Accreted Neutron Star Crusts
• The outer crust of a cold, non-accreting neutron star within the Quark-Meson Coupling (QMC) model
• Improved Nuclear Physics Near $A=61$ Refines Urca Neutrino Luminosities in Accreted Neutron Star Crusts
• Neutron tunneling: A new mechanism to power explosive phenomena in neutron stars, magnetars, and neutron star mergers
• Neutron diffusion in magnetars as a source of astrophysical bursts
• Urca Nuclide Production in Type-I X-ray Bursts and Implications for Nuclear Physics Studies