Thermonuclear fusion in dense stars.
Electron screening, conductive cooling, and magnetic field effects

A. Y. Potekhin,1,2 G. Chabrier2,3
1Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute of RAS, Politekhnicheskaya 26, 194021 St. Petersburg, Saint-Petersburg, Russia
2CRAL (UMR CNRS No. 5574), Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, 69364 Lyon Cedex 07, France
3School of Physics, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK EX4 4QL

We study the plasma correlation effects on nonresonant thermonuclear reactions of carbon and oxygen in the interiors of white dwarfs and liquid envelopes of neutron stars. We examine the effects of electron screening on thermodynamic enhancement of thermonuclear reactions in dense plasmas beyond the linear mixing rule. Using these improved enhancement factors, we calculate carbon and oxygen ignition curves in white dwarfs and neutron stars. The energy balance and ignition conditions in neutron star envelopes are evaluated, taking into account their detailed thermal structure. The result is compared to the simplified "one-zone model," routinely used in modern literature. We also consider the effect of strong magnetic fields on the ignition curves in the ocean of magnetars.

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