AGN feedback studies: combining SINFONI and ALMA

From a mere ornament in the center of the galaxy, the Super Massive
Black Holes (SMBHs) turned in a potential major actor in shaping the
final stellar mass of its host via the so-called AGN feedback. From
the observations there is mounting evidence that AGN outflows are
ubiquitous, but what is still largely missing are observational proofs
of the impact that such AGN-driven outflows have on their hosts. I
will discuss two complementary approaches to tackle this topic.
The first involve the use of Integral Field Spectroscopy in the
near-infrared to use kinematical maps of the ionized gas, as traced by
the [OIII] line, to constrain the energetics of AGN outflows. Our
group has already obtained several results using SINFONI and it has
now started a more systematical study via a recently approved Large
Programme at VLT. The second approach involve the use of ALMA band-3 observations to
measure molecular gas masses, via the 12CO(2-1) transition line, in a
representative sample of ‘main-sequence’ z~ 1.5 AGNs. We compare the
star-formation efficiency and gas fraction of their hosts with those of inactive
galaxies in the same range of stellar masses, SFR and redshifts.