Is extended hard X-ray emission ubiquitous in Compton-thick AGN?
  The recent Chandra discovery of extended $\sim$kpc-scale hard ($>$ 3 keV)
X-ray emission in nearby Compton-thick (CT) active galactic nuclei (AGN) opens
a new window to improving AGN torus modeling and investigating how the central
super massive black hole interacts with and impacts the host galaxy. Since
there are only a handful of detections so far, we need to establish a
statistical sample to determine the ubiquity of the extended hard X-ray
emission in CT AGN, and quantify the amount and extent of this component. In
this paper, we present the spatial analysis results of a pilot Chandra imaging
survey of 7 nearby ($0.006 < z < 0.013$) CT AGN selected from the Swift-BAT
spectroscopic AGN survey. We find that five out of the seven CT AGN show
extended emission in the 3-7 keV band detected at $>$ 3$\sigma$ above the
Chandra PSF with $\sim$12% to 22% of the total emission in the extended
components. ESO 137-G034 and NGC 3281 display biconical ionization structures
with extended hard X-ray emission reaching kpc-scales ($\sim$ 1.9 kpc and 3.5
kpc in diameter). The other three show extended hard X-ray emission above the
PSF out to at least $\sim$360 pc in radius. We find a trend that a minimum 3-7
keV count rate of 0.01 cts/s and total excess fraction $>$20% is required to
detect a prominent extended hard X-ray component. Given that this extended hard
X-ray component appears to be relatively common in this uniformly selected CT
AGN sample, we further discuss the implications for torus modeling and AGN
feedback.
