Studying the most luminous quasars in the Universe.
The WISE/SDSS-selected hyper-luminous quasar (WISSH) survey is an extensive multi-band observing program (from millimeter wavelengths to hard X-rays) to investigate the role of nuclear activity in SMBH-galaxy self-regulated growth via extended outflows. Our ongoing project is designed to accurately probe the relationship between nuclear and host galaxy ISM properties in a unique sample of ~ 90 quasars at the brightest end of the AGN luminosity function (i.e., bolometric luminosity > 8 1013 Lsun), and at the peak of their number density (z~2.5-3.5). This OAR-led project involves more than twenty researchers from Italy and foreign institutions.
The most relevant results obtained to date by WISSH can be summarized as follows:
- the discovery of highly accreting (i.e., Eddington ratios of ~0.3-3), ten billion solar masses SMBHs producing extremely powerful (up to ~ 4% of the bolometric luminosity), large-scale, ionized outflows;
- the co-existence of very intense star formation rates (SFR up to few thousands solar masses per year) and prodigious AGN luminosities;
- the relative X-ray weakness of WISSH quasars when compared to IR and optical properties, with respect to less powerful, well-studied AGN typically sampled in medium/deep survey fields.
- the discovery of very fast winds in the BLR detected by the study of the CIV line profile which show a velocity anti-correlated with the strength of the X-ray emission
The WISSH project is based on JVLA, ALMA, NOEMA, Herschel/SPIRE, WISE, ESO/SINFONI, ESO/X-Shooter, ESO/MUSE, LBT/LUCI, 2MASS, HST, SDSS, Chandra and XMM-Newton data.
General presentations about the WISSH Project can be found here
WISSH Core Team at OAR: M. Bischetti, A. Bongiorno, F. Duras, E. Piconcelli, V. Testa, A. Travascio, L. Zappacosta. Collaborators: E. Giallongo, F. Nicastro, R. Valiante
Extra-OAR WISSH Core team members: G. Bruni (INAF-IAPS), M. Brusa (UniBo), C. Feruglio, F. Fiore (INAF-OATS), F. La Franca (UniRoma3), V. Mainieri (ESO), S. Martocchia (JMU-Liverpool), A. Marconi (UniFi), G. Vietri (INAF-Milan), C. Vignali (UniBo), E. Sani (ESO-Chile)
Contact: Enrico Piconcelli (enrico.piconcelli@inaf.it)