  We present results from Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray observations of NGC
4214, a nearby dwarf starburst galaxy containing several young regions of very
active star-formation. Starburst regions are known to be associated with
diffuse X-ray emission, and in this case the X-ray emission from the galaxy
shows an interesting morphological structure within the galaxy, clearly
associated with the central regions of active star-formation. Of the two main
regions of star-formation in this galaxy, X-ray emission associated with the
older is identified whereas little is detected from the younger, providing an
insight into the evolutionary process of the formation of superbubbles around
young stellar clusters. The spectra of the diffuse emission from the galaxy can
be fitted with a two temperature component thermal model with kT=0.14keV and
0.52keV, and analysis of this emission suggests that NGC 4214 will suffer a
blow-out in the future.
  The point source population of the galaxy has an X-ray luminosity function
with a slope of -0.76. This result, together with those for other dwarf
starburst galaxies (NGC 4449 and NGC 5253), was added to a sample of luminosity
functions for spiral and starburst galaxies. The slope of the luminosity
function of dwarf starbursts is seen to be similar to that of their larger
counterparts and clearly flatter than those seen in spirals. Further
comparisons between the luminosity functions of starbursts and spiral galaxies
are also made.

Astrophysics