The near-infrared Hubble diagram for sub-mm galaxies

Determining the nature of the bright sub-mm sources and their role in the process of galaxy formation is likely to be a major focus of extra-galactic research over the next few years. In particular, we would like to know if these sources are the progenitors of today's massive elliptical galaxies, or alternatively arise from short-lived, albeit spectacular starbursts within haloes of unexceptional mass. This question can be addressed from a number of different directions, one of which is to compare the masses of sub-mm host galaxies with those of other known massive high-redshift objects. Here I make a first attempt to do this by exploring whether the few well-studied sub-mm/mm sources are consistent with the well-established K - z relation for powerful radio galaxies. Out to z similar or equal to 3 this appears to be the case, providing evidence that bright sub-. mm sources are indeed destined to be massive ellipticals. At higher redshifts there is a suggestion that sub-mm galaxies are significantly fainter at K than their radio-selected counterparts, but at present it is unclear whether this indicates a significant difference in stellar mass or the increasing impact of dust obscuration on the rest-frame light from the sub-mm hosts.