The interpretation of the available and forthcoming data obtained from
multimessenger astrophysical observations -- potentially providing
unprecedented access to neutron star properties -- will require the development
of novel, accurate theoretical models of dense matter. Of great importance, in
this context, will be the capability to devise a description of thermal effects
applicable to the study of quantities other than the equation of state, such as
the transport coefficients and the neutrino mean free path in the nuclear
medium. The formalism based on correlated basis states and the cluster
expansion technique has been previously employed to derive a well-behaved
effective interaction -- suitable for use in standard perturbation theory --
from a state-of-the-art nuclear Hamiltonian, including phenomenological two-
and three-nucleon potentials. Here, we provide a comprehensive and
self-contained account of the extension of this approach to the treatment of
finite-temperature effects, and report the results of numerical calculations of
a number of properties of nuclear matter with arbitrary neutron excess and
temperature up to 50 MeV.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures, typeset using aastex63