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We present new Chandra X-ray observations of the transient black hole X-raybinary MAXI J1659-152 in quiescence. These observations were made more than oneyear after the end of the source's 2010-2011 outburst. We detect the source ata 0.5-10 keV flux of 2.8(8)e-15 erg/cm^2/s, which corresponds to a luminosityof ~1.2e31 (d/ 6 kpc)^2 erg/s. This level, while being the lowest at which thesource has been detected, is within factors of ~2 of the levels seen at the endof the initial decay of the outburst and soon after a major reflare of thesource. The quiescent luminosity of MAXI J1659-152, which is theshortest-orbital-period black hole X-ray binary (~2.4 hr), is lower than thatof neutron-star X-ray binaries with similar periods. However, it is higher thanthe quiescent luminosities found for black hole X-ray binaries with orbitalperiods ~2-4 times longer. This could imply that a minimum quiescent luminositymay exist for black hole X-ray binaries, around orbital periods of ~5-10 hr, aspredicted by binary-evolution models for the mass transfer rate. Compared tothe hard state we see a clear softening of the power-law spectrum inquiescence, from an index of 1.55(4) to an index of 2.5(4). We constrain theluminosity range in which this softening starts to fractional Eddingtonluminosities of (0.18-6.2)e-5 (d/ 6 kpc)^2 (M/ 8 Msun), which is consistentwith the ranges inferred for other sources.

The X-ray properties of the black hole transient MAXI J1659-152 in quiescence