- Accepted Paper
-wave kaon condensation in neutron-star matter within a chiral model framework with dynamical meson masses
Phys. Rev. C - Accepted 4 November, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/kc5x-vsfq
Phys. Rev. C - Accepted 4 November, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/kc5x-vsfq
We investigate s-wave condensation in dense matter and neutron stars within the updated Chiral Mean Field model with an improved meson description (mCMF), which incorporates dynamically generated in-medium meson masses. In contrast to conventional relativistic mean-field approaches with fixed meson masses, this framework introduces a self-consistent feedback between the meson sector and the dense-matter equations of motion. The kaon dispersion relation is derived from the nonlinear SU(3) Lagrangian including Weinberg–Tomozawa and additional baryon–pseudoscalar interactions, and the onset of condensation is determined under equilibrium and charge neutrality. We analyze the impact of hyperons, muons, and kaon condensation on the equation of state, on neutron-star mass–radius relations, and neutron-star thermal evolution, and examine the sensitivity of the onset density and stellar properties to variations in the nucleon–kaon scattering length and to different model vector parameters and vector self-interactions. We find that condensation sets in between (in units of nuclear saturation density) and leads to a moderate to strong softening (in one case, a slight stiffening of the equation of state), depending on the interplay with hyperons and the strength of kaon–nucleon interactions, while remaining compatible with current and small-radius neutron-star observational constraints and producing distinguishable behavior in the neutron-star cooling. This work provides an improved and thermodynamically consistent framework for studying exotic degrees of freedom in neutron-star matter.
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