SUPER I. Toward an unbiased study of ionized outflows in z~2 active
  galactic nuclei: survey overview and sample characterization
  Theoretical models of galaxy formation suggest that the presence of an active
galactic nucleus (AGN) is required to regulate the growth of its host galaxy
through feedback mechanisms, produced by e.g. AGN-driven outflows. Although
such outflows are common both at low and high redshift, a comprehensive picture
is still missing. The peak epoch of galaxy assembly (1<z<3) has been poorly
explored so far, and current observations in this redshift range are mostly
limited to targets with high chances to be in an outflowing phase. This paper
introduces SUPER (a SINFONI Survey for Unveiling the Physics and Effect of
Radiative feedback), an ongoing ESO's VLT/SINFONI Large Programme. SUPER will
perform the first systematic investigation of ionized outflows in a sizeable
and blindly-selected sample of 39 X-ray AGN at z~2, which reaches high spatial
resolutions (~2 kpc) thanks to the adaptive optics-assisted IFU observations.
The outflow morphology and star formation in the host galaxy will be mapped
through the broad component of [OIII] and the narrow component of Ha emission
lines. The main aim of our survey is to infer the impact of outflows on the
on-going star formation and to link the outflow properties to a number of AGN
and host galaxy properties. We describe here the survey characteristics and
goals, as well as the selection of the target sample. Moreover, we present a
full characterization of its multi-wavelength properties: we measure, via
spectral energy distribution fitting of UV-to-FIR photometry, stellar masses
(4x10^9-2x10^11 Msun), star formation rates (25-680 Msun yr^-1) and AGN
bolometric luminosities (2x10^44-8x10^47 erg s^-1), along with obscuring column
densities (<2x10^24 cm^-2) and 2-10 keV luminosities (2x10^43-6x10^45 erg s^-1)
derived through X-ray spectral analysis. Finally, we classify our AGN as jetted
or non-jetted according to their radio and FIR emission.
