Manifestation of Hidden Symmetries in Baryonic Matter: From Finite Nuclei to Neutron Stars

The hadron-quark/gluon duality formulated in terms of a topology change at a density $n\gsim 2n_0$ $n_0\simeq 0.16$fm$^{-3}$ is found to describe the core of massive compact stars in terms of quasiparticles of fractional baryon charges, behaving neither like pure baryons nor like deconfined quarks. This can be considered as the Cheshire-Cat mechanism~\cite{CC} for the hadron-quark continuity arrived at bottom-up from skyrmions that is equivalent to the "MIT-bag"-to-skyrmion continuity arrived at top-down from quarks/gluons. Hidden symmetries, both local gauge and pseudo-conformal (or broken scale), emerge and give rise both to the long-standing "effective $g_A^\ast\approx 1$" in nuclear Gamow-Teller transitions at $\lsim n_0$ and to the pseudo-conformal sound velocity $v_{pcs}^2/c^2\approx 1/3$ at $\gsim 3n_0$. It is suggested that what has been referred to, since a long time, as "quenched $g_A$" in light nuclei reflects what leads to the dilaton-limit $g_A^{\rm DL}=1$ at near the (putative) infrared fixed point of scale invariance. These properties are confronted with the recent observations in Gamow-Teller transitions and in astrophysical observations.