Context :

Aims : We report a new microscopic equation of state ( EOS ) of dense symmetric nuclear matter , pure neutron matter , and asymmetric and \beta -stable nuclear matter at zero temperature using recent realistic two-body and three-body nuclear interactions derived in the framework of chiral perturbation theory ( ChPT ) and including the \Delta ( 1232 ) isobar intermediate state .
This EOS is provided in tabular form and in parametrized form ready for use in numerical general relativity simulations of binary neutron star merging .
Here we use our new EOS for \beta -stable nuclear matter to compute various structural properties of non-rotating neutron stars .

Methods : The EOS is derived using the Brueckner–Bethe–Goldstone quantum many-body theory in the Brueckner–Hartree–Fock approximation .
Neutron star properties are next computed solving numerically the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkov structure equations .

Results : Our EOS models are able to reproduce the empirical saturation point of symmetric nuclear matter , the symmetry energy E _ { sym } , and its slope parameter L at the empirical saturation density n _ { 0 } .
In addition , our EOS models are compatible with experimental data from collisions between heavy nuclei at energies ranging from a few tens of MeV up to several hundreds of MeV per nucleon .
These experiments provide a selective test for constraining the nuclear EOS up to \sim 4 n _ { 0 } .
Our EOS models are consistent with present measured neutron star masses and particularly with the mass M = 2.01 \pm 0.04 M _ { \odot } of the neutron stars in PSR J0348+0432 .

Conclusions :