Sept. 25: The latest WISSH paper is out "The WISSH quasar project. XII. X-ray view of the most luminous quasi-stellar objects at Cosmic Noon" Degli Agosti et al. 2025, A&A
May 25: "Quasar2025" Workshop in Bologna. Lots of WISSH Science will be presented!!
Sept 24: The WISSH Science Collaboration Meeting will be held in Bologna (Sept. 18-19) at INAF-OAS.
Jan 24: The WISSHFUL XMM-Newton Multi-year Programme has been approved (PI: G. Lanzuisi, OAS-Bologna) to observe 15 of the most luminous radio-quiet, non-lensed QSOs at z=2-4 selected from the WISSH QSO Survey.
Awarded observing time: 2.2 Megaseconds (611 hours). Kick-off May 2024!
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 Lbol> 8e13 Lsun), and at the peak of their number density (z ~2-4). 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 both proprietary & public JVLA, ALMA, NOEMA, Herschel/SPIRE, WISE, ESO/SINFONI, ESO/X-Shooter, ESO/MUSE, LBT/LUCI, TNG, 2MASS, HST, SDSS, Chandra and XMM-Newton data
Scientific Coordinator: E. Piconcelli (INAF- OAR)
Leader of Optical-UV data analysis: G. Vietri (INAF-IASF)
Leader of submm/IR data analysis: M. Bischetti (U. Trieste)
Leader of radio data analysis: G. Bruni (INAF-IAPS)
AVAILABLE THESIS [triennale, magistrale, PhD]:
POWERFUL WINDS CLOSE TO THE SMBH: Physics & Statistics
THE LARGE SCALE OUTFLOWS IN QUASARS
THE INTERSTELLAR GAS OF THE MOST LUMINOUS QUASARS IN THE UNIVERSE
THE X-RAY PROPERTIES OF HYPER-LUMINOUS QUASARS AS PROBE OF THEIR CENTRAL ENGINES
CONTACT: ENRICO.PICONCELLI@INAF.IT
WISSH Team Members
@Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma [INAF]: E. Piconcelli, A. Bongiorno, I. Saccheo, A. Luminari, V. Testa, R. Valiante, L. Zappacosta
@Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste [INAF]: F. Fiore, M. Bischetti, C. Feruglio, F. Salvestrini, A. Travascio
@IASF Milano [INAF]: G. Vietri, A. Deconto
@Di. di Fisica e Astronomia Roma Tre:F. La Franca, F. Ricci
@Dip. di Fisica e Astronomia, Uni. Bologna:M. Brusa, C. Vignali
@Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna [INAF]: G. Lanzuisi
@Osservatorio Astronomico di Arcetri [INAF]: G. Cresci, A. Marconi, E. Bertola
@ESO: V. Mainieri, E. Sani
@SNS, Pisa: S. Carniani
@IAPS, Roma: G. Bruni, M. Fanelli
WISSH Collaborators: T. Misawa, S. Martocchia, F. Duras, S. Bianchi, F. Tombesi, M. Giustini, G. Miniutti, M. Perez-Torres
The first series of WISSH papers (I-V) has been completed in 2018. The second series of papers (VI-XI) has been completed in 2022.
The third series of papers (XII-XV) is planned for submission in 2025.
The list of publications is continuously updated:
“I. Powerful ionized outflows in hyper-luminous quasars” M. Bischetti et al. (2017, A&A, 598, A122)
“II. Giant star nurseries in hyper-luminous quasars“ F. Duras et al. (2017, A&A, 604, A67)
“III. X-ray properties of hyper-luminous quasars” S. Martocchia et al. (2017, A&A, 608, A51)
“IV. Broad line region versus kiloparsec-scale winds” G. Vietri et al. (2018, A&A, 617, A81)
“V. ALMA reveals the assembly of a giant galaxy around a z=4.4 hyper-luminous quasar” M. Bischetti et al. (2018, A&A, 617, A82)
“VI. Fraction and Properties of BAL quasars in the hyper-luminous regime” G. Bruni et al. (2019, A&A, 630, A111)
“VII. The impact of extreme radiative field in the accretion and X-ray disk corona interplay” L. Zappacosta et al. (2020, A&A, 635, L5)
“VIII. Outflow and metals in the CGM around the hyper-luminous z~3.6 quasar J1538+08“ A. Travascio et al. (2020, A&A, 635, A157)
“IX. Cold gas content and environment of luminous quasars at z~2.4-4.7“ M. Bischetti et al. (2021, A&A, 645, A33)
“X. Discovery of a multi-component and highly-variable UV ultra-fast outflow in a z=3.6 quasar“ G. Vietri et al. (2022, A&A, 668, A87)
“XI. The mean SED and Bolometric corrections of the most most luminous quasars" I. Saccheo et al. (2023, A&A, 671, A34)
"XII. X-ray view of the most luminous QSOs at Cosmic Noon" C. Degli Agosti et al. (2025, A&A in press)
"XIII. High-resoluion Spectroscopy of UV ultra-fast outflows" Deconto et al., in prep
"XIV. Radio WISSH: Multi-frequency radio survey of the most lumunious QSOs" Fanelli et al . in prep.
"XV. Properties of the molecular gas in luminous quasars" Salvestrini et al. in prep.
A bunch of presentations on the results from the WISSH Quasar Project can be found here: E. Piconcelli X-ray Universe (2017), M. Bischetti EWASS 2017-Prague, G. Vietri AGN-13 (2018), E. Piconcelli Uni. Roma2 Colloquim (2020)
Data here
"Mezzogiorno di quasar" MEDIA INAF 23/10/2020
"Quasar in bilico" MEDIA INAF 10/3/2020
"Raffiche relativistiche dai T-Rex dei quasar" MEDIA INAF 1/10/2019
"Baby boom stellare nei quasar ultra-luminosi" MEDIA INAF 8/8/2017
EX Post-doctoral, Graduate & Undergraduate WISSH Collaborators
Undergraduate: F. Duras, S. Martocchia, M. Bischetti, C. Degli Agosti
Graduate: G. Vietri, M. Bischetti, A. Travascio, I. Saccheo, I. Villani
Post-Doctoral: M. Bischetti , G. Vietri, F. Salvestrini, A. Travascio
dATA & DOCUMENTS (private)
LIST (LZ webpage)