SUPER

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) atz ∼ 2. We present the first SINFONI results for a sample of 21 Type 1 AGN spanning a wide range in bolometric luminosity (logLbol= 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 thew80value from the integrated spectrum, which is in the range ∼650–2700 km s−1. There is a clear positive correlation betweenw80and 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%.