Tidal damping would make orbits circular
But buffeting from the quadrupole moments induced by convection, causes
a finite eccentricity
Analogous to pendulum buffeting in air
Eccentricity is ``frozen'' when mass transfer ceases
B
Figure 47: Solid line -- the predicted
median eccentricity for pulsars recycled by stable mass transfer from a
Roche-lobe-filling, low-mass red giant. Dotted lines -- 95 per cent of the
measured eccentricities for recycled pulsars are expected to lie within
these [29, 30]. Circles -- low-mass binary
pulsars. Squares - upper limits on measured eccentricities. Crosses -
high-mass binary pulsars. Triangles - intermediate-mass binary
pulsars. Dashed lines - approximate limits obtainable on eccentricities for
timing residuals of 
s and 
s.