Chandra detects low-luminosity AGN with $M_\mathrm{BH}=10^{4}-10^{6}~M_\mathrm{\odot}$ in nearby ($z<0.5$), dwarf and star-forming galaxies

Understand

We searched the Chandra and XMM archives for observations of 900 green pea galaxies to find AGN signatures.

• Green peas are low-mass galaxies with prominent emission lines, similar in size and star formation rate to high-redshift dwarf galaxies.
• Of the 29 observations found, 9 show X-ray detections with $S/N>3$.
• The 2-10 keV X-ray luminosity for these 9 sources exceeds $10^{40}~\mathrm{erg~s}^{-1}$, with 2 sources exceeding $10^{41}~\mathrm{erg~s}^{-1}$, suggesting the presence of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBH) or low-luminosity AGN (LLAGN) with BH masses between $100-10^6M_\mathrm{\odot}$.