In early December of 2016, the Astrophysical Journal published a new paper coauthored by an astronomy research fellow, John Antoniadis, of the University of Toronto and an amateur astronomer, Andre van Staden, of South Africa. Van Staden had contacted scholars following his discovery of an anomaly in the brightness of the companion star of the “black widow” pulsar MSP J1723-2837.
Ordinarily, a companion star's brightness rises and falls based on the system's orbital pattern. This particular star, however, seemed to brighten and dim at intervals slightly behind what pattern data would suggest. Further investigation revealed the likely reason for the delay to be large sunspots on the companion star, which indicate a strong magnetic field.
This magnetic field may help to explain why MSP J1723-2837's companion star has no radiation hotspot, which usually appears on such a star as a result of stellar wind flowing from the pulsar itself. If the magnetic field of the companion star is driving the stellar wind and gamma radiation in a different direction, that process may affect the way in which the pulsar first feeds off of and then forces stellar material away from its companion. More research is necessary to determine how common this process may be and what it may mean for the study of pulsars.