A fast ionised wind in a star-forming quasar system at z ∼ 1.5 resolved through adaptive optics assisted near-infrared data

Aims. Outflow winds are invoked in co-evolutionary models to link the growth of SMBH and galaxies through feedback phenomena, and from the analysis of both galaxies and active galactic nuclei (AGN) samples at z ∼ 1-3, it is becoming clear that powerful outflows may be very common in AGN hosts. High-resolution and high S/N observations are needed to uncover the physical properties of the wind through kinematics analysis. Methods. We exploited VLT/VIMOS, VLT/SINFONI, and Subaru/IRCS adaptive optics (AO) data to study the kinematics properties on the scale of the host galaxy of XID5395; this galaxy is a luminous, X-ray obscured starburst/quasar (SB-QSO) merging system at z ∼ 1.5, detected in the XMM-COSMOS field, associated with an extreme [O II] emitter (with equivalent width, EW, ∼200 Å). For the first time, we mapped the kinematics of the [O III] and Hα line complexes and linked them with the [O II] emission at high resolution. The high spatial resolution achieved allowed us to resolve all the components of the SB-QSO system. Results. Our analysis, with a resolution of few kpc, reveals complexities and asymmetries in and around the nucleus of XID5395. The velocity field measured via non-parametric analysis reveals different kinematic components with maximum blueshifted and redshifted velocities up to ? 1300 km s-1 that are not spatially coincident with the nuclear core. These extreme values of the observed velocities and spatial location can be explained by the presence of fast moving material. We also spectroscopically confirm the presence of a merging system at the same redshift as the AGN host. Conclusions. We propose that EW as large as >150 Å in X-ray selected AGN may be an efficient criterion to isolate objects associated with the short, transition phase of "feedback" in the AGN-galaxy co-evolutionary path. This co-evolutionary path subsequently evolves into an unobscured QSO, as suggested from the different observational evidence (e.g. merger, compact radio emission, and outflow) we accumulated for XID5395