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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 experimental nuclear data, we estimate the maximum possible amount of heat that can be deposited in the outer crust of an accreting neutron star due to electron captures and pycnonuclear fusion reactions triggered by the burial of X-ray burst ashes., Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. C

Mutual entrainment effects in cold neutron-proton mixtures are studied in the framework of the self-consistent nuclear energy-density functional theory. Exact expressions for the mass currents, valid for both homogeneous and inhomogeneous systems, are directly derived from the time-dependent Hartree-Fock equations with no further approximation. The equivalence with the Fermi-liquid expression is also demonstrated. Focusing on neutron-star cores, a convenient and simple analytical formulation of the entrainment matrix in terms of the isovector effective mass is found, thus allowing one to relate entrainment phenomena in neutron stars to isovector giant dipole resonances in finite nuclei. Results obtained with different functionals are presented. These include the Brussels-Montreal functionals, for which unified equations of state of neutron stars have been recently calculated., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

We study the low-energy collective excitations in the inner crust of the neutron star, where a neutron superfluid coexists with a Coulomb lattice of nuclei. The dispersion relation of the modes is calculated systematically from a microscopic theory including neutron band structure effects. These effects are shown to lead to a strong mixing between the Bogoliubov-Anderson bosons of the neutron superfluid and the longitudinal crystal lattice phonons. In addition, the speed of the transverse shear mode is greatly reduced as a large fraction of superfluid neutrons are entrained by nuclei. Not only does the much smaller velocity of the transverse mode increase the specific heat of the inner crust, it also decreases its electron thermal conductivity. These results may impact our interpretation of the thermal relaxation in accreting neutron stars. Due to strong mixing, the mean free path of the superfluid mode is found to be greatly reduced. Our results for the collective mode dispersion relations and their damping may also have implications for neutron star seismology., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Hydrodynamic simulations of neutron star cores that are based on a two-fluid description in terms of a neutron-proton superfluid mixture require the knowledge of the Andreev-Bashkin entrainment matrix which relates the momentum of one constituent to the currents of both constituents. This matrix is derived for arbitrary nuclear asymmetry at zero temperature and in the limits of small relative currents in the framework of the energy density functional theory. The Skyrme energy density functional is considered as a particular case. General analytic formulas for the entrainment parameters and various corresponding effective masses are obtained. These formulas are applied to the liquid core of a neutron star composed of homogeneous plasma of nucleons, electrons, and possibly muons in beta equilibrium., info:eu-repo/semantics/published