# Is there evidence of super-heavy elements in the x-ray and gamma-ray spectrums of neutron stars?

It occurs to me, that between the surface and interior of neutron stars, gravitational pressure might produce super-heavy elements and that signatures of such elements might be detectable in the star's spectrum.

The crusts of neutron stars will contain "super-heavy", neutron-rich nuclei. This is an inevitable consequence of the high density material, the accompanying degenerate electrons (that block $$\beta$$-decay) and what we know about nuclear physics.
The "super-heavy elements" won't be present until the densities are much higher than in the surface layers. In a low-density material, these exotic nuclei will simply undergo a series of $$\alpha$$ and $$\beta$$ decays or even fission. In high density materials, the electron Fermi energy can exceed the maximum possible decay energy of any beta electrons and stymie the decay process.
e.g. For a surface density of order $$10^{9}$$ kg/m$$^{3}$$ (at which point nothing very exotic is created), the electron number density will be about $$3\times 10^{35}$$ m$$^{-3}$$. Soft X-rays emitted at $$10^{6}$$K, will undergo Thomson scattering with a mean free path of $$1/n_e\sigma \sim 50$$ nm. No (detailed) information about the interior can emerge in such circumstances.