Compact binary millisecond pulsar systems can host some of the most massive neutron stars. These rapidly rotating neutron stars are orbited by a much less massive companion star, which can be heated by high energy particles from the pulsar wind, causing it to become irradiated. This, along with additional sources of heating from the surface of companion, like star spots, can affect the shape of the optical light curves of these systems. PSR J1622+0315 is one such system for which we have data from the New Technology Telescope in 2017 and the Nordic Optical Telescope in 2022. Using the binary modeling synthesis code, ICARUS, we model the light curves of PSR J1622+0315, which show features of low levels of irradiation as well as star spots that vary over the five years from 2017 to 2022. Taking these effects into consideration, we find that this pulsar could have one of the highest known neutron star masses to date.
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Looking for Super-Massive Neutron Stars
