  Recent measurements of high-momentum correlated neutron-proton pairs at JLab
suggest that the dense nucleonic component of the compact stars contain a
fraction of high-momentum neutron-proton pairs that is not accounted in the
familiar Fermi-liquid theory of the neutron-proton fluid mixture. We compute
the rate of the Urca process in compact stars taking into the non-Fermi liquid
contributions to the proton's spectral widths induced by short-range
correlations. The Urca rate differs strongly from the Fermi-liquid prediction
at low temperatures, in particular, the high threshold on the proton fraction
precluding the Urca process in neutron stars is lifted. This observation may
have a profound impact on the theories of cooling of compact stars.
