The real composition of neutron star crusts can also differ from the ground state due to the
fallback of material from the envelope ejected during the supernova explosion and due to the
accretion of matter. In particular, an accreted crust is a site of X-ray bursts. The ashes of unstable
thermonuclear burning at accretion rates could be a mixture of
nuclei and could therefore be relatively “impure” (heterogeneous and possibly
amorphous) [365, 364
]. If the initial ashes are a mixture of many nuclides, further compression
under the weight of accreted matter can keep the heterogeneity. If the crust is weakly impure
but rather amorphous, its thermal and electrical conductivities in the solid phase would be
orders of magnitude lower than in the perfect crystal as discussed in Section 9. This would have
dramatic consequences as far as the rate of the thermal relaxation of the crust is concerned
(Section 12.7.3).
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