2003A&A...407..265Y

We study thermal states of transiently accreting neutron stars (with mean accretion rates {dot}(M)∼10^–14-10^–9M_☉/yr) determined by the deep crustal heating of accreted matter sinking into stellar interiors. We formalize a direct correspondence of this problem to the problem of cooling neutron stars. Using a simple toy model we analyze the most important factors which affect the thermal states of accreting stars: a strong superfluidity in the cores of low-mass stars and a fast neutrino emission (in nucleon, pion-condensed, kaon-condensed, or quark phases of dense matter) in the cores of high-mass stars. We briefly compare the results with the observations of soft X-ray transients in quiescence. If the upper limit on the quiescent thermal luminosity of the neutron star in SAX J1808.4-3658 (Campana et al., 2002ApJ...575L..15C) is associated with deep crustal heating, it favors the model of nucleon neutron-star cores with switched-on direct Urca process.