Strange goings on in dense nucleonic matter

It has been suggested that charged pions form a Bose-Einstein condensate in baryonic matter at zero temperature and about twice nuclear density. In this letter it is shown that at somewhat higher densities one finds a charged kaon condensate, driven to a large extent by the ''sigma term'' interaction with baryons. Using the SU(3)xSU(3) chiral lagrangian to model meson-baryon interactions it is found that baryonic matter acquires a strangeness-per-baryon ratio approaching one at several times nuclear density. The relevance of kaon condensation as a route to strange matter and its role in neutron stars are discussed. (orig.)