THE PRISM MULTI-OBJECT SURVEY (PRIMUS). I. SURVEY OVERVIEW AND CHARACTERISTICS
- Department of Physics, Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, University of California, 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, San Diego, CA 92093 (United States)
- Department of Physics, Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, New York University, 4 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003 (United States)
- D.E. Shaw and Co., L.P., 20400 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 850, Cupertino, CA 95014 (United States)
- Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Peyton Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544 (United States)
- Steward Observatory, The University of Arizona, 933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, UCO/Lick Observatory, University of California, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112 (United States)
We present the PRIsm MUlti-object Survey (PRIMUS), a spectroscopic faint galaxy redshift survey to z {approx} 1. PRIMUS uses a low-dispersion prism and slitmasks to observe {approx}2500 objects at once in a 0.18 deg{sup 2} field of view, using the Inamori Magellan Areal Camera and Spectrograph camera on the Magellan I Baade 6.5 m telescope at Las Campanas Observatory. PRIMUS covers a total of 9.1 deg{sup 2} of sky to a depth of i{sub AB} {approx} 23.5 in seven different deep, multi-wavelength fields that have coverage from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer, Spitzer, and either XMM or Chandra, as well as multiple-band optical and near-IR coverage. PRIMUS includes {approx}130,000 robust redshifts of unique objects with a redshift precision of {sigma}{sub z}/(1 + z) {approx} 0.005. The redshift distribution peaks at z {approx} 0.6 and extends to z = 1.2 for galaxies and z = 5 for broad-line active galactic nuclei. The motivation, observational techniques, fields, target selection, slitmask design, and observations are presented here, with a brief summary of the redshift precision; a forthcoming paper presents the data reduction, redshift fitting, redshift confidence, and survey completeness. PRIMUS is the largest faint galaxy survey undertaken to date. The high targeting fraction ({approx}80%) and large survey size will allow for precise measures of galaxy properties and large-scale structure to z {approx} 1.
- OSTI ID:
- 21587321
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 741, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/741/1/8; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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