Speaker
Description
Our study focuses on Hyper-luminous Quasars (HyLQSOs), highly accreting SMBHs at z$\sim$2-4.5 ("cosmic noon”), which drive powerful AGN feedback via extreme energy release.
The WISSH project studies 85 of these sources (LBol$\geq 2\times 10^{47}$ erg/s), confirming they host massive SMBHs ($M_{BH}\geq 2\times 10^{9} M_{\odot}$) and launch powerful, high-velocity outflows (up to 50,000 km/s). They are often X-ray weak due to shielding by these winds.
Radio observations provide fundamental information to investigate accretion/ejection coupling, the presence of jets and the interplay between jets and powerful winds. This is key to understanding the radio-loud/radio-quiet dichotomy across cosmic epochs.
We are conducting a radio survey (uGMRT/JVLA) of the WISSH sample revealing a new, highly luminous population. Interestingly, the detected radio emission, being more predominant than the X-ray emission, appears to be linked to outflows (winds or jets), even though most sources are formally radio-quiet. The WISSH sources offer the opportunity to test a possible analogy with high-state X-ray binaries, using the radio loudness/Eddington rate relation to constrain the universal physics of accretion-driven outflows.