A 62-minute orbital period black widow binary in a wide hierarchical triple

Over a dozen millisecond pulsars are ablating low-mass companions in close binary systems. In the original black widow, the eight-hour orbital period eclipsing pulsar PSR J1959+2048 (PSR B1957+20)¹, high-energy emission originating from the pulsar² is irradiating and may eventually destroy³ a low-mass companion. These systems are not only physical laboratories that reveal the interesting results of exposing a close companion star to the relativistic energy output of a pulsar, but are also believed to harbour some of the most massive neutron stars⁴, allowing for robust tests of the neutron star equation of state. Here we report observations of ZTF J1406+1222, a wide hierarchical triple hosting a 62-minute orbital period black widow candidate, the optical flux of which varies by a factor of more than ten. ZTF J1406+1222 pushes the boundaries of evolutionary models⁵, falling below the 80-minute minimum orbital period of hydrogen-rich systems. The wide tertiary companion is a rare low-metallicity cool subdwarf star, and the system has a Galactic halo orbit consistent with passing near the Galactic Centre, making it a probe of formation channels, neutron star kick physics⁶ and binary evolution.