  We consider a new approach to the description of dense nuclear matter in the
framework of chirally symmetric, quark-based hadron models. As previously in
the Skyrme model, the dense environment is described in terms of hyperspherical
cells of unit baryon number. The intrinsic curvature of these cells generates a
new gauge interaction for the quark fields which mediates interactions with the
ambient matter. We apply this approach to the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model,
construct its curved-space quark propagator and solve the ladder Bethe-Salpeter
equation for the pion. We find a high-density phase transition to chiral
restoration, discuss the density dependence of the chiral order parameter and
of the pion properties, and compare with results of the conventional
chemical-potential approach. The new approach can additionally describe
baryon-density-free cavities in the dense medium.
