Neutrino-pair bremsstrahlung by relativistic degenerate electrons in a
neutron-star crust at densities (10^9 - 1.5x10^{14}) g/cm^3 is analyzed. The
processes taken into account are neutrino emission due to Coulomb scattering of
electrons by atomic nuclei in a Coulomb liquid, and electron-phonon scattering
and Bragg diffraction (the static-lattice contribution) in a Coulomb crystal.
The static-lattice contribution is calculated including the electron
band-structure effects for cubic Coulomb crystals of different types and also
for the liquid crystal phases composed of rod- and plate-like nuclei in the
neutron-star mantle (at 10^{14} - 1.5x10^{14} g/cm^3). The phonon contribution
is evaluated with proper treatment of the multi-phonon processes which removes
a jump in the neutrino bremsstrahlung emissivity at the melting point obtained
in previous works. Below 10^{13} g/cm^3, the results are rather insensitive to
the nuclear form factor, but results for the solid state near the melting point
are affected significantly by the Debye-Waller factor and multi-phonon
processes. At higher densities, the nuclear form factor becomes more
significant. A comparison of the various neutrino generation mechanisms in
neutron star crusts shows that electron bremsstrahlung is among the most
important ones.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures, LaTeX using aa.cls and epsf.sty. A&A, in pres
