Mr. Moritz Klawin successfully defended his PhD on December 5th. We warmly congratulate the new Dr. Klawin!

His dissertation, “Observational studies of X-ray binaries and the development of a containerised INTEGRAL data extraction pipeline,” presents three complementary projects at the intersection of high-energy astrophysics and scientific software engineering.

The first project focuses on the high-mass X-ray binary Centaurus X-3, whose orbital period is known to exhibit a steady decay. By expanding earlier datasets and refining previous analyses, Dr. Klawinn obtained improved measurements of this decay and performed a joint modelling of the system’s orbital parameters, leading to updated ephemerides and tighter limits on the orbital eccentricity.

The second project examines the symbiotic X-ray binary GX 1+4. Although its orbital period had been inferred from optical radial velocity measurements, a direct detection in X-rays was still lacking. Through the analysis of multiple long-baseline X-ray observations, he searched for periodic signals, carried out orbital-phase-resolved spectroscopy and imaging, and discussed the implications for the physical parameters of the system.

The third project presents a new containerised INTEGRAL data-extraction framework, built around the official OSA software. Designed to be modular, robust, and platform-independent, it eliminates dependency conflicts and supports parallel processing, offering a reliable and future-proof solution for large-scale INTEGRAL data analysis. 

In the photo the candidate and the PHD committee. From left to right: Prof. Beate Stelzer, Prof. David Wharam, Dr. Moritz Klawin, Prof. Andrea Santangelo, PD Dr. Christophy Schäfer.