Relation of Strangeness Nuggets to Strangeness Condensation and the Maximum Mass of Neutron Stars

Abstract

Combining the recent experimental indications of density dependence in the pion decay constant $f_\pi^\star$ and the $\omega$ meson mass $m_\omega^\star$ and the discovery of $S^0 (3115)$ and other "strange nuggets" with the vector manifestation of chiral symmetry in hidden local symmetry proposed by Harada and Yamawaki, we show that the mechanism responsible for dense strangeness nuggets can be related to that responsible for kaon condensation in neutron-star matter. We suggest that this relation assures kaon condensation at a density $\sim$ three times nuclear matter density which supports the Brown-Bethe scenario for the $M_{\rm NS}^{max} \simeq 1.5\msun$. This low $M_{\rm NS}^{\rm max}\sim 1.5\msun$ has major consequences in astrophysics, especially for the merging rate of compact stellar objects.