We study the equation of state of symmetric nuclear matter at zero temperature over a wide range of densities using two complementary theoretical approaches. At low densities up to twice nuclear saturation density, we compute the energy per particle based on modern nucleon-nucleon and three-nucleon interactions derived within chiral effective field theory. For higher densities we derive for the first time constraints in a Fierz-complete setting directly based on quantum chromodynamics using functional renormalization group techniques. We find remarkable consistency of the results obtained from both approaches as they come together in density and the natural emergence of a maximum in the speed of sound $c_S$ at supranuclear densities. The presence of this maximum appears tightly connected to the formation of a diquark gap. Notably, this maximum is observed to exceed the asymptotic value $c_S^2=1/3$ while its exact position in terms of the density cannot yet be determined conclusively.

中文翻译：

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强烈相互作用产生的对称核物质

我们使用两种互补的理论方法研究了在零密度范围内零温度下对称核物质的状态方程。在低密度下达到核饱和密度的两倍时，我们根据手性有效场理论中推导的现代核子-核子和三核子之间的相互作用计算每个粒子的能量。对于更高的密度，我们首次使用函数重归一化组技术基于量子色动力学直接在Fierz完全设置中得出约束。我们发现从这两种方法获得的结果都具有惊人的一致性，因为它们在密度和声音速度的最大值自然出现时会合在一起$C_{\mathrm{小号}}$在核上密度。该最大值的出现似乎与夸克间隙的形成紧密相关。值得注意的是，观察到该最大值超过了渐近值$C_{\mathrm{小号}}^2=\mathrm{1个}/3$ 虽然它的密度确切位置尚不能确定。