THE PRISM MULTI-OBJECT SURVEY (PRIMUS). II. DATA REDUCTION AND REDSHIFT FITTING

The PRIsm MUlti-object Survey (PRIMUS) is a spectroscopic galaxy redshift survey to z similar to 1 completed with a low-dispersion prism and slitmasks allowing for simultaneous observations of similar to 2500 objects over 0.18 deg2. The final PRIMUS catalog includes similar to 130,000 robust redshifts over 9.1 deg(2). In this paper, we summarize the PRIMUS observational strategy and present the data reduction details used to measure redshifts, redshift precision, and survey completeness. The survey motivation, observational techniques, fields, target selection, slitmask design, and observations are presented in Coil et al. Comparisons to existing higher-resolution spectroscopic measurements show a typical precision of sigma(z)/(1 + z) = 0.005. PRIMUS, both in area and number of redshifts, is the largest faint galaxy redshift survey completed to date and is allowing for precise measurements of the relationship between active galactic nuclei and their hosts, the effects of environment on galaxy evolution, and the build up of galactic systems over the latter half of cosmic history.