SUBWAYS

The SUBWAYS project (acronym for “Supermassive Black Holes Winds in the X-rays”) will use XMM-Newton during AO18 for more than 18 days (1.58 Ms), to observe a sample of ~20 quasars in the relatively close by Universe (z~0.2).

 

The aim of SUBWAYS is to provide direct support on QSO feedback models by deriving meaningful constraints on frequency and properties of the winds propagating at sub-relativistic velocity (dubbed “Ultra Fast Outflows”, UFO) on the scales closest to the central super massive black hole.

So far, the characterization of UFOs has been limited – with few exceptions – to large samples of  Active Galactic Nuclei in the local Universe. SUBWAYS will guarantee the needed step forward, observing for the first time and for an adequate time the best possible candidates among the sources at the highest luminosity, to investigate the outflow phenomenon for the first time with a statistical approach and to study the relation of UFOs with the winds observed at larger scales and in different gas components.

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The project is the third ever approved in a single XMM-Newton cycle (the seventh altogether, if proposals approved on more than one cycle are considered) during its 20 years acrivity. It is also the first project of such size to be awarded to an Italian woman. The SUBWAYS team includes 47 scientists from 10 countries (Italy, The Netherlands, USA, Mexico, UK, Spain, Poland, Germany, France and Israel), among  the major experts worldwide in the fields of UFOs and galactic winds, and in general AGN and Quasars physics and evolution, both from the observational and theoretical point of view.

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