The breaking stress (the maximum of the stress-strain curve) of neutron star crust is important for neutron star physics including pulsar glitches, emission of gravitational waves from static mountains, and flares from star quakes. We perform many molecular dynamic simulations of the breaking stress at different coupling parameters (inverse temperatures), strain rates and composition of matter. We describe our results with the kinetic theory of strength. We apply this model to estimate the breaking stress for timescales ∼1 s – 1 year, which are most important for applications, but much longer than can be directly simulated. At these timescales the breaking stress depends strongly on the temperature. For coupling parameter $\Gamma <200$ matter breaks at very small stress, if it is applied for a few years. This viscoelastic creep can limit the lifetime of mountains on neutron stars. The results of this paper can be also applied for Yukawa crystals.

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