Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) reside at the centres of most massive galaxies, where they grow by accreting matter from their surroundings. During periods of intense accretion, they become active and release vast amounts of energy that can regulate the star formation of their host galaxies. Despite their fundamental role in galaxy evolution, the mechanisms that fuel SMBH activity are not yet fully understood, as the material feeding the black hole must be transported from galactic or even larger scales down to the central parsec of the galaxy. One proposed mechanism is that galaxy interactions and mergers can funnel gas towards the galactic centre, triggering active galactic nuclei (AGN; e.g., Raimundo et al. 2023; Ellison et al. 2019).
Recent observations suggest that distant galaxy protoclusters host an enhanced fraction of active SMBHs, possibly as a result of the increased rate of interactions experienced by galaxies during cluster assembly (Isla Llave et al. 2026). However, these studies are limited by small samples and by the observational challenges of detecting AGNs at high redshift. In this project, the student will investigate this scenario in the local Universe by analysing a sample of dynamically unrelaxed galaxy clusters, which provide a valuable laboratory for investigating the environmental processes associated with cluster assembly. The student will first identify a sample of low-redshift clusters that are still undergoing assembly and then measure the fraction of galaxies hosting an AGN. This fraction will be compared with equivalent measurements for relaxed clusters, selected from our catalogue (Gort et al. 2025), and for galaxies in lower-density environments. The analysis will test whether the enhanced interaction rates expected during cluster assembly are associated with an increased incidence of AGN activity, shedding light on the environmental conditions that favour the fuelling of central SMBHs.