Opt. selected close galaxy pairs with Chandra obs.

We present an analysis of nuclear X-ray emission in an optically selected sample of 92 close galaxy pairs (with projected separations <~20kpc and line-of-sight velocity offsets <500km/s) at low redshift (\bar{z}~0.07), based on archival Chandra observations. The parent sample of galaxy pairs is constructed without imposing an optical classification of nuclear activity, thus it is largely free of selection effect for or against the presence of an AGN.

Nor is this sample biased for or against gas-rich mergers. An X-ray source is detected in 70 of the 184 nuclei, giving a detection rate of 38%_-5%_^+5%^, down to a 0.5-8keV limiting luminosity of <~10^40^erg/s. The detected and undetected nuclei show no systematic difference in their host galaxy properties such as galaxy morphology, stellar mass, and stellar velocity dispersion.