Kaon condensation in skyrmion matter and compact stars

We address the possibility of the appearance of a charged kaon condensate in neutron star cores described within a generalized Skyrme model. Our treatment of strange degrees of freedom is based on the bound state approach by Callan and Klebanov, which allows to obtain an in-medium effective potential for the s-wave kaon condensate. We predict the onset of kaon condensation at a certain threshold density- whose value depends on the parameters of the model, and ranges between 1.5 and 2.5 times saturation density-and obtain both the particle fractions and equation of state for dense matter in the kaon condensed phase. Finally, we discuss the effect of such condensates on the mass-radius curves and other observable properties of neutron stars with kaon condensed cores.