DIFFUSIVE NUCLEAR BURNING OF HELIUM ON NEUTRON STARS

Diffusive nuclear burning (DNB) of H by an underlying material capable of capturing protons can readily consume H from the surface of neutron stars (NSs) during their early cooling history. In the absence of subsequent accretion, it will be depleted from the photosphere. We now extend DNB to He, motivated by the recent observation by Ho & Heinke of a carbon atmosphere on the NS in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant. We calculate the equilibrium structure of He on an underlying alpha capturing material, accounting for thermal, mass defect, and Coulomb corrections on the stratification of material with the same zeroth order mu(e) = A/Z. We show that Coulomb corrections dominate over thermal and mass defect corrections in the highly degenerate part of the envelope. We also show that the bulk of the He sits deep in the envelope rather than near the surface. Thus, even if the photospheric He abundance is low, the total He column could be substantially larger than the photospheric column, which may have implications for rapid surface evolution (approximate to 1 yr timescales) of NSs. When nuclear reactions are taken into account, we find that for base temperatures greater than or similar to 1.6 x 10(8) K, He is readily captured onto C. As these high temperatures are present during the early stages of NS evolution, we expect that the primordial He is completely depleted from the NS surface like the case for primordial H. We also find that magnetic fields less than or similar to 10(12) G do not affect our conclusions. Armed with the results of this work and our prior efforts, we expect that primordial H and He are depleted, and so any observed H or He on the surfaces of these NS must be due to subsequent accretion (with or without spallation). If this subsequent accretion can be prevented, the underlying mid-Z material would be exposed.