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New millisecond pulsars (MSPs) in compact binaries provide a good opportunity to search for the most massive neutron stars. Their main-sequence companion stars are often strongly irradiated by the pulsar, displacing the effective center of light from their barycenter and making mass measurements uncertain. We present a series of optical spectroscopic and photometric observations of PSR J2215+5135, a redback binary MSP in a 4.14 hr orbit, and measure a drastic temperature contrast between the dark/cold (T$_mathrm{N}$=5660$^{+260}_{-380}$ K) and bright/hot (T$_mathrm{D}$=8080$^{+470}_{-280}$ K) sides of the companion star. We find that the radial velocities depend systematically on the atmospheric absorption lines used to measure them. Namely, the semi-amplitude of the radial velocity curve of J2215 measured with magnesium triplet lines is systematically higher than that measured with hydrogen Balmer lines, by 10%. We interpret this as a consequence of strong irradiation, whereby metallic lines dominate the dark side of the companion (which moves faster) and Balmer lines trace its bright (slower) side. Further, using a physical model of an irradiated star to fit simultaneously the two-species radial velocity curves and the three-band light curves, we find a center-of-mass velocity of K$_2$=412.3$pm$5.0 km s$^{-1}$ and an orbital inclination i=63.9$^circ$$^{+2.4}_{-2.7}$. Our model is able to reproduce the observed fluxes and velocities without invoking irradiation by an extended source. We measure masses of M$_1$=2.27$^{+0.17}_{-0.15}$ M$_odot$ and M$_2$=0.33$^{+0.03}_{-0.02}$ M$_odot$ for the neutron star and the companion star, respectively. If confirmed, such a massive pulsar would rule out some of the proposed equations of state for the neutron star interior.
We discuss our recently proposed interpretation of the discrepancy between the bottle and beam neutron lifetime experiments as a sign of a dark sector. The difference between the outcomes of the two types of measurements is explained by the existence
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