Spectroscopic characterization of the protocluster of galaxies around 7C 1756+6520 at z - 1.4

Aims. The aim of this paper is the spectroscopic study of 13 galaxies belonging to the field of the protocluster associated with the radio galaxy 7C 1756+6520 at z = 1.4156. In particular, we focus on the characterization of the nuclear activity. Methods. This analysis has been performed on rest-frame optical spectra taken with the Large Binocular Telescope, using the spectrograph LUCI, which is operative in the near-infrared domain. The adopted spectral coverage allowed us to observe emission lines such as Hα, Hβ, [O III]λ 5007 Å, and [N II]λ 6583 Å at the redshift of the central radio galaxy. We observed the central part of the protocluster, which is suitable to include the radio galaxy, several spectroscopically confirmed active galactic nuclei (AGN) belonging to the protocluster, and other objects that might be members of the protocluster. Results. For four previously identified protocluster members, we derived the redshift by detecting emission lines that have never detected befor...