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Description
We complete the census of nuclear X-ray activity in 100 early-type Virgo galaxies observed by the Chandra X-ray Telescope as part of the AMUSE-Virgo survey, down to a (3{sigma}) limiting luminosity of 3.7x10^38^erg/s over 0.5-7keV. The stellar mass distribution of the targeted sample, which is mostly composed of formally "inactive" galaxies, peaks below 10^10^M_{sun}_, a regime where the very existence of nuclear supermassive black holes (SMBHs) is debated. Out of 100 objects, 32 show a nuclear X-ray source, including 6 hybrid nuclei which also host a massive nuclear cluster as visible from archival Hubble Space Telescope images. After carefully accounting for contamination from nuclear low-mass X-ray binaries based on the shape and normalization of their X-ray luminosity function (XLF), we conclude that between 24% and 34% of the galaxies in our sample host an X-ray active SMBH (at the 95% confidence level). This sets a firm lower limit to the black hole (BH) occupation fraction in nearby bulges within a cluster environment.
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