Abstract

Outflows driven by active galactic nuclei (AGN) are widely accepted to have a key role in shaping the evolution of the host galaxy, but it is still debated how they are accelerated and propagated on galaxy scales. The most promising ‘engines’ of large-scale winds are the X-ray ultra-fast outflows (UFO), originating in the AGN nuclear region. In this talk I will present the results from two recent studies about the acceleration mechanism of AGN -driven winds, aiming to specifically investigate the link between UFOs and the ionised gas phase of large-scale outflows. I will describe how we have traced the ionised outflows in MUSE and SINFONI observations of two local Type-1 Seyferts and two quasars at z~1.5 (i.e. close to the peak of AGN activity) respectively, and then compare our measurements with the theoretical predictions on wind propagation of models. To put our findings in a broader context, I will finally discuss our results along with those of the small sample of well-studied objects, known to host both UFOs and extended outflows, showing the good agreement of observations with models for almost all objects.