2021MNRAS.508.3812N

The standard model of stellar evolution in close binary systems assumes that during mass transfer episodes, the system is in a synchronized and circularized state. Remarkably, the redback system PSR J1723-2837 has an orbital period derivative {dot}P_orb too large to be explained by this model. Motivated by this fact, we investigate the action of tidal forces in between two consecutive mass transfer episodes for a system under irradiation feedback, which is a plausible progenitor for PSR J1723-2837. We base our analysis on Hut's treatment of equilibrium tidal evolution, generalized by considering the donor as a two layers object that may not rotate as a rigid body. We also analyse three different relations for the viscosity with the tidal forcing frequency. We found that the large value measured for {dot}P_orb can be reached by systems where the donor star rotates slower (by few per cent) than the orbit just after mass transfer episodes. Van Staden & Antoniadis have observed this object and reported a lack of synchronism, opposite to that required by the Hut's theory to account for the observed {dot}P_orb. Motivated by this discrepancy, we analyse photometric data obtained by the spacecraft Kepler second mission K2, with the purpose of identifying the periods present in PSR J1723-2837. We notice several periods close to those of the orbit and the rotation. The obtained periods pattern reveals the presence of a more complex phenomenology, which would not be well described in the frame of the weak friction model of equilibrium tides.