X iv : n uc l - th / 9 71 20 17 v 1 5 D ec 1 99 7 1 Strange particles in dense matter and kaon condensates

We discuss the role of strangeness in dense matter and especially in neutron stars. The early (in density) introduction of hyperons found in many calculations is probably delayed by the decrease in vector mean field acting on the neutron. This decrease results from both conventional many-body rescattering effects and from the movement towards asymptotic freedom at high densities. Subthreshold K −-meson production by the KaoS collaboration at GSI shows that the K −-mass must be substantially lowered, by ≥ 200 MeV at ρ ∼ 2ρ 0. It is shown that explicit chiral symmetry breaking through the kaon mass may be responsible for Σ −-nucleon and Ξ −-nucleon scalar attraction being weaker than obtained by simple quark scaling. The normal mode of the strangeness minus, charge e − , excitation is constructed as a linear combination of K −-meson and Σ − , neutron-hole state. Except for zero momentum, where the terms are unmixed, the " kaesobar " is a linear combination of these two components.