Shell flashes interacting with the core of neutron stars

Taking the whole internal structure into account, and using a fully general relativistic stellar evolutionary code, shell flashes on accreting neutron stars are computed. For high accretion rates, their recurrence is shown to be little influenced by the thermal state of the core, no matter how cool it is. For low accretion rates, however, their progress depends strongly on the interior temperature. When the interior is cool, as expected in the case of X-ray transients, shell flashes are of long duration. Observational tests are proposed for probing the interior of neutron stars