Premium
Pycnonuclear reactions and the nature of supranuclear matter
Author(s) -
Yakovlev D. G.,
Levenfish K. P.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
contributions to plasma physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.531
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1521-3986
pISSN - 0863-1042
DOI - 10.1002/ctpp.200310053
Subject(s) - neutron star , physics , equation of state , dense matter , binary number , nuclear matter , astrophysics , state of matter , nuclear physics , thermodynamics , condensed matter physics , nucleon , arithmetic , mathematics
We discuss pycnonuclear burning in a strongly nonideal plasma of atomic nuclei at densities up to 10 13 g cm −3 . As an application, we consider pycnonuclear burning of matter accreted on a neutron star in a binary system. The energy released in this burning, while the matter sinks into the stellar crust under the weight of newly accreted material, is sufficient to warm the star. Its surface thermal radiation becomes dependent of poorly known equation of state of supranuclear matter in the stellar core, which gives a method to explore this equation of state. The results of such studies are outlined. (© 2003 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)