Colloquium – Aklant Bhowmick

Aklant Bhowmick, University of Virginia

Unraveling the Origins of Supermassive Black Holes and their Cosmic Significance using Cosmological simulations

Supermassive black holes, typically ranging from a million to a billion solar masses, are now known to inhabit the centers of most massive galaxies. Unraveling their cosmic origins remains a central open problem in astrophysics and a key objective for current and upcoming electromagnetic and gravitational-wave observational facilities. In this presentation, I will discuss my recent research involving the development of a new suite of cosmological simulations named BRAHMA, which implements novel approaches to model the formation of the earliest black holes in the Universe that potentially served as the “seeds” of present-day supermassive black holes. Possible candidates for these seeds include remnants of the first generation of metal-free (Population III) stars, as well as black holes formed via the direct collapse of metal-free gas without prior star formation. I will demonstrate how these different seed formation scenarios produce distinct signatures in black hole populations across cosmic history, detectable with electromagnetic and gravitational-wave observatories in the coming decade. Finally, I will outline my near-term research program focused on building the theoretical and computational infrastructure needed to connect these observations to the physical processes governing black hole seeding and early growth, enabling robust constraints on the origins of supermassive black holes.

Bio: Dr. Aklant Kumar Bhowmick is an expert on supermassive black holes and their modeling within large cosmological simulations. He received his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University. He subsequently held a postdoctoral position at the University of Florida, before becoming a Galaxy Evolution and Cosmology Fellow at the University of Virginia.

February 16, 2026 @ 3:00pm (CST) in 4309 Stevenson Center

Host: Steve Taylor