Kaon production in heavy-ion collisions and kaon condensation in neutron stars

The recent past witnesses the growing interdependence between the physics of hadrons, the physics of relativistic heavy-ion collisions, and the physics of compact objects in astrophysics. A notable example is the kaon which plays a special roles in all the three fields. In this contribution, we present a transport model study of kaon production and flow in heavy-ion collisions at SIS energies. We also discuss the effects of the kaon in-medium properties extracted from heavy-ion data on neutron star properties.