Are Active Galactic Nuclei in Post-Starburst Galaxies Driving the Change or Along for the Ride?

The role of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in driving, or helping to drive, galaxies to transition from an actively star-forming state to quiescence remains an important open question. Post-starburst galaxies are the logical laboratory in which to investigate this question. We recently examined the X-ray luminosity of 12 post-starburst galaxies using a forward-modeling analysis to constrain their properties based on their weak but significantly detected emission. We find that many of these galaxies are consistent with a present, but lower-luminosity AGN. I will discuss our observations on these galaxies, the methodology we used to constrain their parameters, and their implications for the nature of AGN in post-starburst galaxies.