  The strong coupling limit (beta_gauge = 0) of QCD offers a number of
remarkable research possibilities, of course at the price of large lattice
artifacts. Here, we determine the complete phase diagram as a function of
temperature T and baryon chemical potential mu_B, for one flavor of staggered
fermions in the chiral limit, with emphasis on the determination of a
tricritical point and on the T ~ 0 transition to nuclear matter. The latter is
known to happen for mu_B substantially below the baryon mass, indicating strong
nuclear interactions in QCD at infinite gauge coupling. This leads us to
studying the properties of nuclear matter from first principles. We determine
the nucleon-nucleon potential in the strong coupling limit, as well as masses
m_A of nuclei as a function of their atomic number A. Finally, we clarify the
origin of nuclear interactions at strong coupling, which turns out to be a
steric effect.
