SUPER

I. Toward an unbiased study of ionized outflows in z ∼ 2 active galactic nuclei: survey overview and sample characterization^⋆

¹ European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany
² Ludwig Maximilian Universität, Professor-Huber-Platz 2, 80539 München, Germany
e-mail: ccircost@eso.org
³ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia dell’Universitá degli Studi di Bologna, via P. Gobetti 93/2, 40129 Bologna, Italy
⁴ INAF/OAS, Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna, via P. Gobetti 93/3, 40129 Bologna, Italy
⁵ MPE, Giessenbach-Str. 1, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany
⁶ Cluster of Excellence, Boltzmann-Str. 2, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany
⁷ European Southern Observatory, Alonso de Cordova 3107, Casilla 19, 19001 Santiago, Chile
⁸ CEA, IRFU, DAp, AIM, Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, CNRS, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
⁹ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Vicolo dell’Osservatorio 5, 35122 Padova, Italy
¹⁰ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, Via Brera 28, 20121 Milano, Italy
¹¹ Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
¹² INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Via Frascati 33, 00078 Monte Porzio Catone (Roma), Italy
¹³ Universitá degli Studi di Roma “Tor Vergata”, Via Orazio Raimondo 18, 00173 Roma, Italy
¹⁴ Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, 19 J. J. Thomson Avenue, CB3 0HE Cambridge, UK
¹⁵ Kavli Institute for Cosmology, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, CB3 0HA Cambridge, UK
¹⁶ Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, 02138 Cambridge, MA, USA
¹⁷ INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy
¹⁸ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, via G.B. Tiepolo 11, 34143 Trieste, Italy
¹⁹ Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, DH1 3LE Durham, UK
²⁰ Argelander-Institut für Astronomie, Universität Bonn, Auf dem Hügel 71, 53121 Bonn, Germany
²¹ Space Science Data Center – ASI, via del Politecnico SNC, 00133 Roma, Italy
²² Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Firenze, Via G. Sansone 1, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino (Firenze), Italy
²³ School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, 69978 Tel Aviv, Israel
²⁴ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Universitá di Padova, vicolo Osservatorio 3, 35122 Padova, Italy
²⁵ National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Mitaka, 181-8588 Tokyo, Japan
²⁶ Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, The University of Tokyo, 277-8583 Kashiwa, Japan

Received: 28 May 2018
Accepted: 3 September 2018

Abstract

Theoretical models of galaxy formation suggest that the presence of an active galactic nucleus (AGN) is required to regulate the growth of its host galaxy through feedback mechanisms, produced by, for example, AGN-driven outflows. Although many observational studies have revealed that such outflows are common both at low and high redshift, a comprehensive picture is still missing. In particular, the peak epoch of galaxy assembly (1 <  z <  3) has been poorly explored so far, and current observations in this redshift range are mostly limited to targets with high chances to be in an outflowing phase. This paper introduces SUPER (a SINFONI Survey for Unveiling the Physics and Effect of Radiative feedback), an ongoing ESO’s VLT/SINFONI Large Programme. SUPER will perform the first systematic investigation of ionized outflows in a sizeable and blindly-selected sample of 39 X-ray AGN at z ∼ 2, which reaches high spatial resolutions (∼2 kpc) thanks to the adaptive optics-assisted IFS observations. The outflow morphology and star formation in the host galaxy will be mapped through the broad component of [O III]λ5007 and the narrow component of Hα emission lines. The main aim of our survey is to infer the impact of outflows on the on-going star formation and to link the outflow properties to a number of AGN and host galaxy properties. We describe here the survey characteristics and goals, as well as the selection of the target sample. Moreover, we present a full characterization of its multi-wavelength properties: we measure, via spectral energy distribution fitting of UV-to-FIR photometry, stellar masses (4 × 10⁹ − 2 × 10¹¹ M_⊙), star formation rates (25 − 680 M_⊙ yr⁻¹) and AGN bolometric luminosities (2 × 10⁴⁴ − 8 × 10⁴⁷ erg s⁻¹), along with obscuring column densities (up to 2 × 10²⁴ cm⁻²) and luminosities in the hard 2 − 10 keV band (2 × 10⁴³ − 6 × 10⁴⁵ erg s⁻¹) derived through X-ray spectral analysis. Finally, we classify our AGN as jetted or non-jetted according to their radio and FIR emission.