  This presentation starts with a brief review of our current picture of QCD
phases, derived from lattice QCD thermodynamics and from models based on the
symmetries and symmetry breaking patterns of QCD. Typical approaches widely
used in this context are the PNJL and chiral quark-meson models. It is pointed
out, however, that the modeling of the phase diagram in terms of quarks as
quasiparticles misses important and well known nuclear physics constraints. In
the hadronic phase of QCD governed by confinement and spontaneously broken
chiral symmetry, in-medium chiral effective field theory is the appropriate
framework, with pions and nucleons as active degrees of freedom. Nuclear chiral
thermodynamics is outlined and the liquid-gas phase transition is described.
The density and temperature dependence of the chiral condensate is deduced. As
a consequence of two- and three-body correlations in the nuclear medium, no
tendency towards a first-order chiral phase transition is found at least up to
twice the baryon density of normal nuclear matter and up to temperatures of
about 100 MeV. Isospin-asymmetric nuclear matter and neutron matter are also
discussed. An outlook is given on new tightened constraints for the
equation-of-state of cold and highly compressed matter as implied by a recently
observed two-solar-mass neutron star.
