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Dual active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and offset AGNs are kpc-scale separationsupermassive black holes pairs created during galaxy mergers, where both or oneof the black holes are AGNs, respectively. These dual and offset AGNs arevaluable probes of the link between mergers and AGNs but are challenging toidentify. Here we present Chandra/ACIS observations of 12 optically-selecteddual AGN candidates at z < 0.34, where we use the X-rays to identify AGNs. Wealso present HST/WFC3 observations of 10 of these candidates, which reveal anystellar bulges accompanying the AGNs. We discover a dual AGN system withseparation of 2.2 kpc, where the two stellar bulges have coincident [O III] andX-ray sources. This system is an extremely minor merger (460:1) that mayinclude a dwarf galaxy hosting an intermediate mass black hole. We also findsix single AGNs, and five systems that are either dual or offset AGNs withseparations < 10 kpc. Four of the six dual AGNs and dual/offset AGNs are inongoing major mergers, and these AGNs are 10 times more luminous, on average,than the single AGNs in our sample. This hints that major mergers maypreferentially trigger higher luminosity AGNs. Further, we find that confirmeddual AGNs have hard X-ray luminosities that are half of those of single AGNs atfixed [O III] luminosity, on average. This could be explained by high densitiesof gas funneled to galaxy centers during mergers, and emphasizes the need fordeeper X-ray observations of dual AGN candidates.

Merger-driven Fueling of Active Galactic Nuclei: Six Dual and Offset  Active Galactic Nuclei Discovered with Chandra and Hubble Space Telescope  Observations