  We confront observational data from gravitational wave event GW170817 with
microscopic modeling of the cold neutron star equation of state. We develop and
employ a Bayesian statistical framework that enables us to implement
constraints on the equation of state from laboratory measurements of nuclei and
state-of-the-art chiral effective field theory methods. The energy density
functionals constructed from the posterior probability distributions are then
used to compute consistently the neutron star equation of state from the outer
crust to the inner core, assuming a composition consisting of protons,
neutrons, electrons, and muons. In contrast to previous studies, we find that
the 95% credibility range of predicted neutron star tidal deformabilities ($136
< \Lambda < 519$) for a 1.4 solar-mass neutron star is already consistent with
the upper bound deduced from observations of the GW170817 event. However, we
find that lower bounds on the neutron star tidal deformability will very
strongly constrain microscopic models of the dense matter equation of state. We
also demonstrate a strong correlation between the neutron star tidal
deformability and the pressure of beta-equilibrated matter at twice saturation
density.
