Kaon condensation and composition of neutron star matter in a modified quark-meson coupling model

Abstract

We use the modified quark-meson coupling (MQMC) model to study the composition profile of neutron star matter and compare the results with those calculated by quantum hadrodynamics (QHD). Both MQMC and QHD model parameters are adjusted to produce exactly the same saturation properties so that we can investigate the model dependences of the matter composition at high densities. We consider the possibility of deep kaon optical potential and find that the composition of matter is very sensitive to the interaction strength of kaons with matter. The onset densities of the kaon condensation are studied in detail by varying the kaon optical potentials. We find that the MQMC model produces the kaon condensation at lower densities than QHD. The presence of kaon condensation changes drastically the population of octet baryons and leptons. Once the kaon condensation takes place, the population of kaons builds up very quickly, and kaons become the dominant component of the matter. We find that the \ensuremath{\omega} meson plays an important role in increasing the kaon population and suppressing the hyperon population.