Rare Isotopes and Accreting Neutron Stars, X-Ray Bursts, Neutron Star Crust, rp-Process.

Rare isotopes from the proton drip line to the neutron drip line are produced on the surface and crust of accreting neutron stars. Understanding their properties is essential to address the open questions raised by a variety of new observations of X-ray binaries, in particular X-ray bursters and transients. This paper provides an introduction to the topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]