Infrared Spectroscopy of the High Redshift Radio Galaxy MRC 2025-218 and a Neighboring Extremely Red Galaxy

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This paper presents infrared spectra taken with the newly commissioned NIRSPEC spectrograph on the Keck Telescope of the High Redshift Radio Galaxy MRC 2025-218 (z=2.630) and an extremely red galaxy (R-K > 6 mag) 9'' away. These observations represent the deepest infrared spectra of a radio galaxy to date and have allowed for the detection of Hbeta, OIII (4959/5007), OI (6300), Halpha, NII (6548/6583) and SII (6716/6713). The Halpha emission is very broad (FWHM 6000 km/s) and strongly supports AGN unification models linking radio galaxies and quasars. The line ratios are most consistent with a partially obscured nuclear region and very high excitation. The OIII (5007) line is extended several arcseconds and shows high velocity clouds in the extended emission. The nucleus also appears spectrally double and we argue that the radio galaxy is undergoing a violent merger process. The red galaxy, by comparison, is very featureless even though we have a good continuum detection in the H and K bands. We suggest that this object is a foreground galaxy, probably at a redshift less than 1.5.