  When hadron-quark continuity is formulated in terms of a topology change at a
density higher than twice the nuclear matter density ($n_0$), the core of
massive compact stars can be described in terms of quasiparticles of fractional
baryon charges, behaving neither like pure baryons nor like deconfined quarks.
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.
