SUPER II. Spatially resolved ionised gas kinematics and scaling relations in z ∼ 2 AGN host galaxies

Abstract

Aims. The SINFONI survey for Unveiling the Physics and Effect of Radiative feedback (SUPER) aims to trace and characterise ionised gas outflows and their impact on star formation in a statistical sample of X-ray selected active galactic nuclei (AGN) at z ∼ 2. We present the first SINFONI results for a sample of 21 Type 1 AGN spanning a wide range in bolometric luminosity (log Lbol = 45.4–47.9 erg s−1). The main aims of this paper are to determine the extension of the ionised gas, characterise the occurrence of AGN-driven outflows, and link the properties of such outflows with those of the AGN.

Methods. We used adaptive optics-assisted SINFONI observations to trace ionised gas in the extended narrow line region using the [O III] λ5007 line. We classified a target as hosting an outflow if its non-parametric velocity of the [O III] line, w80, was larger than 600 km s−1. We studied the presence of extended emission using dedicated point-spread function (PSF) observations, after modelling the PSF from the Balmer lines originating from the broad line region.

Results. We detect outflows in all the Type 1 AGN sample based on the w80 value from the integrated spectrum, which is in the range ∼650–2700 km s−1. There is a clear positive correlation between w80 and the AGN bolometric luminosity (> 99% correlation probability), and the black hole mass (98% correlation probability). A comparison of the PSF and the [O III] radial profile shows that the [O III] emission is spatially resolved for ∼35% of the Type 1 sample and the outflows show an extension up to ∼6 kpc. The relation between maximum velocity and the bolometric luminosity is consistent with model predictions for shocks from an AGN-driven outflow. The escape fraction of the outflowing gas increases with the AGN luminosity, although for most galaxies, this fraction is less than 10%.