SIMBAD references

We report the results from a homogeneous analysis of the X-ray (Chandra ACIS) data available for a sample of 51 LINER galaxies selected from the catalogue by Carrillo et al. (1999RMxAA..35..187C) and representative of the population of bright LINER sources. The nuclear X-ray morphology has been classified by their nuclear compactness in the hard band (4.5-8.0keV) into 2 categories: active galactic nuclei (AGN) candidates (with a clearly identified unresolved nuclear source) and starburst (SB) candidates (without a clear nuclear source). Sixty percent of the total sample are classified as AGNs, with a median luminosity of L_X(2-10 keV)=2.5x10⁴⁰erg/s, which is an order of magnitude higher than for SB-like nuclei. The spectral fitting allows us to conclude that most of the objects need a non-negligible power-law contribution. When no spectral fitting can be performed (data with a low signal-to-noise ratio), the color-color diagrams allow us to roughly estimate physical parameters, such as column density, temperature of the thermal model, or spectral index for a power-law, and therefore to better constrain the origin of the X-ray emission. The X-ray morphology, the spectra, and the color-color diagrams together allow us to conclude that a high percentage of LINER galaxies, at least ≃60%, could host AGN nuclei, although contributions from high-mass X-ray binaries or ultra-luminous X-ray sources cannot be ruled out for some galaxies.