  Neutron tunneling in neutron star crusts can release enormous amounts of
energy on a short timescale. We have clarified aspects of this process
occurring in the outer crust regions of neutron stars when oscillations or
cataclysmic events changes the crustal ambient density. We report a
time-dependent Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov model to determine the rate of neutron
diffusion and conclude that a large amount of energy, in the range of 10^40 -
10^44 erg, can be released rapidly. We suggest that this mechanism may be the
source of hitherto unknown phenomena such as the Fast Radio Bursts (FRBS).

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena;Solar and Stellar Astrophysics;Nuclear Theory