How pion condensation occurring in cold, dense matter would influence the macroscopic properties of neutron stars is studied. In particular, due to the softening of the equation of state, pion condensation could lead to a significant decrease of the maximum mass and moment of inertia allowable for neutron star models constructed using such an equation of state. Four models of the pion condensate in neutron matter are considered, and various equations of state for pion-condensed matter are derived. Models of neutron stars are calculated and confronted with existing observational data on pulsars. The collapse of a normal neutron star to a configuration with pion-condensed core is also considered. This could happen when pion condensation implies the first-order phase transition in dense matter. The changes in the neutron star parameters and the maximum energy release during such a collapse are found to be strongly model dependent.
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Haensel et al. (1982) studied this question.