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Physics of supermassive black hole accretion and feedback

Investigate and determine the physical processes governing supermassive black hole accretion in active galactic nuclei and characterize the properties and impacts of their energy‑ and matter‑driven winds on host galaxies to address currently unknown aspects of these central black holes.

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Background

Blessing Musiimenta’s PhD research examines supermassive black holes (SMBHs) during active accretion phases (AGN) and focuses on detecting and characterizing strong winds and outflows. These outflows can regulate accretion and suppress star formation in host galaxies, making AGN feedback a key process in galaxy evolution.

She explicitly states that many aspects of SMBHs remain unknown, motivating the need to clarify accretion physics and feedback mechanisms. This problem is central to connecting SMBH growth with the observable properties of galaxies across cosmic time.

References

“These black holes are found at the centres of galaxies and play a critical role in shaping how galaxies evolve, but there is still a lot we don't understand about them.”

— Inspiring stories from women in astronomy in Africa (2510.05195 - Muheki et al., 6 Oct 2025) in Section “Be kind to everyone and always do your best — Blessing Musiimenta”; Page 72 (profile)