We present a Bayesian analysis to constrain the equation of state of dense nucleonic matter by exploiting the available data from symmetric nuclear matter at saturation and from observations of compact X-ray sources and from the gravitational wave event GW170817 .
For the first time , such analysis is performed by using a class of models , the relativistic mean field models , which allow to consistently construct an equation of state in a wide range of densities , isospin asymmetries and temperatures .
The selected class of models contains five nuclear physics empirical parameters at saturation for which we construct the joint posterior distributions .
By exploring different types of priors , we find that the equations of state with the largest evidence are the ones featuring a strong reduction of the effective mass of the nucleons in dense matter which can be interpreted as an indication of a phase transition to a chiral symmetry restored phase .
Those equations of state in turn predict R _ { 1.4 } \sim 12 km .
Finally , we present a preliminary investigation on the effect of including \Lambda hyperons showing that they appear in stars more massive than about 1.6 M _ { \odot } and lead to radii larger than about R _ { 1.4 } \sim 14 km .
Within the model here explored , the formation of such particles provide a poor agreement with the constraints from GW170817 .