The fate of nuclear energy carried by matter accreted onto a neutron star was considered e.g. by Rosenbluth et al. (1973). They examined pycnonuclear reactions on an originally cold star, and found that the whole star is thereby heated up to 106−107 °K. The thermonuclear reactions that can be ignited then, have been studied by Hansen and Van Horn (1975), who computed stationary burning shells, finding, however, that in most cases the shells are thermally unstable.We consider here the possibility that X-ray bursts are due to instabilities of this type. The observational constraints fix the parameters uniquely.
Pycnonuclear reactions and the physics of neutron star interiors