Recent detections of a significant interstellar medium (ISM) in many
post-starburst galaxies challenges their traditional classification as
dust- and gas-poor merger remnants, rapidly transitioning to quiescence. We
have conducted a multi-wavelength survey of 33 E +A post-starbursts
selected from SDSS, including Spitzer, Herschel, and ALMA. We find compact,
warm dust reservoirs with high polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)
abundances. Their infrared spectral properties are unique, with dominant
PAH emission, very weak nebular lines, and deep [C II] deficits – the aging
burst populations provide an unusual “high-soft” radiation field that
seemingly dominates the post- starbursts’ ISM energetics. We also find
unusually strong H2 rotational emission, among the brightest, relative to
infrared luminosity, of any known galaxy – indicating a highly turbulent
ISM. High-resolution ALMA CO(2–1) follow-up observations reveal that the
molecular gas in these post-starbursts is exceptionally dense – rivaling
the gas found in ULIRGs – and is concentrated in turbulent, rotating
nuclear reservoirs. Coupled with modest SFRs from a range of infrared
tracers, the post-starbursts’ high gas densities indicate highly
inefficient star formation – they lie more than an order of magnitude below
the Kennicutt-Schmidt star-forming relation. These results paint a coherent
picture of systems in which star formation was, indeed, rapidly truncated,
but in which the ISM was not completely expelled. High-density nuclear
reservoirs of molecular fuel remain but are supported against collapse by
some form of continual turbulent heating.