  In our calculation of neutron star crust heating we include several key new
model features. In earlier work electron capture (EC) only allowed neutron
emission from the daughter ground-state; here we calculate, in a deformed QRPA
model, EC decay rates to all states in the daughter that are allowed by
Gamow-Teller selection rules and energetics. The subsequent branching ratios
between the 1n,...,xn channels and the competing $\gamma$-decay are calculated
in a Hauser-Feshbach model. Since EC accesses excited states, many more
neutrons are emitted in our calculation than in previous work, leading to
accelerated reaction flows. In our multi-component plasma model a single
(EC,xn) reaction step can produce several neutron-deficient nuclei, each of
which can further decay by (EC,xn). Hence, the neutron emission occurs more
continuously with increasing depth as compared to that in a one-component
plasma model.
