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Recently, Cheng et al. identified a number of massive white dwarfs (WD) thatappear to have an additional heat source providing a luminosity near $\approx10^{-3}L_\odot$ for multiple Gyr. In this paper we explore heating fromelectron capture and pycnonuclear reactions. We also explore heating from darkmatter annihilation. WD stars appear to be too small to capture enough darkmatter for this to be important. Finally, if dark matter condenses to very highdensities inside a WD this could ignite nuclear reactions. We calculate theenhanced central density of a WD in the gravitational potential of a very densedark matter core. While this might start a supernova, it seems unlikely toprovide modest heating for a long time. We conclude that electron capture,pycnonuclear, and dark matter reactions are unlikely to provide significantheating in the massive WD that Cheng considers.

Nuclear and dark matter heating in massive white dwarf stars