Black hole accretion and spin evolution

Supermassive black holes are uniquely described by two quantities: mass and angular momentum, also called spin. When gas accretes, it settles around the black hole in an accretion disk, a rotating structure in which gas spirals inwards thanks to viscous dissipation and is ultimately accreted when it reaches the proximity of the black hole event horizon. Both processes unfold on spatial and temporal scales far below the resolution of cosmological simulations, so they have to be captured with sub-resolution models. Part of my work has been devoted to designing and testing those models: following how accretion proceeds and how it is coupled to the spin, and how together they drive the growth of black holes and their host galaxies.

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