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Neutron stars are unique nuclear physics laboratories. Observations of
isolated, accreting, and merging neutron stars can be used to probe
matter from the nuclear saturation density to densities described by
perturbative QCD and from sub-nuclear temperatures up to 100 MeV. I
will show, for example, how neutron star observations connect neutron
stars to the equation of state of dense matter. Neutron star mergers,
observed by LIGO in 2017, are an entirely new laboratory for nuclear
physics. The observation of GW 170817 confirmed our prediction for the
tidal deformability of a 1.4 solar mass neutron star. Neutron star
mergers probe higher temperatures (~100 MeV) than core-collapse
supernovae, and thus may provide an interesting connection between
low-energy nuclear physics and quark-gluon descriptions of matter at
higher densities and temperatures. I will describe how nuclear theory,
astronomical observations, and experiments, like those performed at
the TAMU Cyclotron Institute, can be combined to achieve a new
understanding of the nature of hot and dense strongly-interacting
matter.

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