Black Hole Growth Simulation
Computational astrophysics research on Eddington and super-Eddington accretion under PhD mentorship.
Duration: 12-week research project
Mentorship: PhD researcher (computational astrophysics)
Repository: pratham-aggr/Black-Hole-Growth
This project investigated how black holes grow from initial seed masses under different accretion regimes — Eddington-limited and super-Eddington — using numerical simulations.
Key questions addressed:
- How does the choice of seed mass affect the trajectory of black hole growth over cosmological timescales?
- Under what accretion conditions do supermassive black holes reach observed masses within the age of the universe?
- How does super-Eddington accretion change growth rates compared to the Eddington limit?
Methods: Implemented time-stepping simulations of mass growth equations, varied initial seed masses across several orders of magnitude, and analyzed the resulting growth curves. Results were analyzed to identify the parameter regimes consistent with observed high-redshift quasar masses.
This research produced a paper (citation placeholder — see Publications).