The Massive Hosts of Radio Galaxies across Cosmic Time

We present the results of a comprehensive Spitzer survey of 69 radio galaxies across 1 60% for ~75% of the high-redshift radio galaxies. As expected from unified models of AGNs, the stellar fraction of the rest-frame H-band luminosity has no correlation with redshift, radio luminosity, or rest-frame mid-IR (5 μm) luminosity. In addition, while the stellar H-band luminosity does not vary with stellar fraction, the total H-band luminosity anticorrelates with the stellar fraction as would be expected if the underlying hosts of these radio galaxies comprise a homogeneous population. The resultant stellar luminosities imply stellar masses of 10^(11)-10^(11.5) M_☉ even at the highest redshifts. Powerful radio galaxies tend to lie in a similar region of mid-IR color-color space as unobscured AGNs, despite the stellar contribution to their mid-IR SEDs at shorter wavelengths. The mid-IR luminosities alone classify most HzRGs as LIRGs or ULIRGs with even higher total-IR luminosities. As expected, these exceptionally high mid-IR luminosities are consistent with an obscured, highly accreting AGN. We find a weak correlation of stellar mass with radio luminosity.