Impact of Nuclear Star Clusters on the growth of Supermassive Black Holes

The rapid growth of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) remains a fundamental puzzle in astrophysics, particularly given the detection of high-mass SMBHs in the early Universe. The aim of this project is to investigate the critical role of nuclear star clusters (NSCs) in facilitating the mass transfer required for SMBH growth. NSCs, which are among the densest and most massive stellar systems, often coexist with SMBHs in galactic centers, yet their dynamic interactions with surrounding gas and their influence on SMBH accretion is not sufficiently explored.

The project will utilize numerical models based on the public magneto-hydrodynamic code Flash, the radiation transport code TreeRay and other software developed within the Physics of Galaxies research group. The models will focus on the mechanisms responsible for redistributing the gas in the extreme environment of galactic centres, with a particular emphasis on the energy input from supernovae, stellar winds and radiation of massive stars of NSCs. The results will be compared to observations of galactic centres, allowing for direct evaluation of model predictions against infrared, radio, and X-ray data.

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