The Sloan Digital Sky Survey quasar catalog: tenth data release^⋆

¹ Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de Chile, 36-D Casilla, Santiago, Chile
e-mail: paris@iap.fr
² UPMC-CNRS, UMR 7095, Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, 75014 Paris, France
³ APC, Astroparticule et Cosmologie, Uniiversité Paris Diderot, CNRS/IN2P3, CEA/Irfu, Observatoire de Paris, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 10 rue Alice Domon & Léonie Duquet, 75205 Paris Cedex 13, France
⁴ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley CA 94720, USA
⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Wyoming, Laramie WY 82071, USA
⁶ Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
⁷ Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC), 38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
⁸ Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), Dept. Astrofisica, 38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
⁹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, York University, Toronto, ON M3J1P3, Canada
¹⁰ Princeton University Observatory, Peyton Hall, Princeton NJ 08544, USA
¹¹ University of Washington, Dept. of Astronomy, Box 351580, Seattle WA 98195, USA
¹² Apache Point Observatory, PO Box 59, Sunspot NM 88349-0059, USA
¹³ CEA, Centre de Saclay, Irfu/SPP, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
¹⁴ Institute for Advanced Study, Einstein Drive, Princeton NJ 08540, USA
¹⁵ Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
¹⁶ Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
¹⁷ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah, 115 S 1400 E, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
¹⁸ Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson AZ 85721, USA
¹⁹ Faculty of Sciences, Department of Astronomy and Space Sciences, Erciyes University, 38039 Kayseri, Turkey
²⁰ Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
²¹ Department of Astronomy, University of Florida, Gainesville FL 32611-2055, USA
²² Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK
²³ McWilliamsCenter for Cosmology, Department of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA 15213, USA
²⁴ Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Barcelona, Catalonia
²⁵ Institut de Ciències del Cosmos, Universitat de Barcelona (UB-IEEC), Barcelona, Catalonia
²⁶ Department of Astronomy, Ohio State University, Columbus OH 43210, USA
²⁷ Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth, Dennis Sciama building, Portsmouth P01 3FX, UK
²⁸ Instituto de Física, UFRGS, Caixa Postal 15051, RS - 91501-970 Porto Alegre, Brazil
²⁹ Laboratório Interinstitucional de e-Astronomia, - LIneA, Rua Gal. José Cristino 77, RJ - 20921-400 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
³⁰ INAF–Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, via G. B. Tiepolo 11, 34131 Trieste, Italy
³¹ INFN/National Institute for Nuclear Physics, via Valerio 2, 34127 Trieste, Italy
³² Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, New York University, New York NY 10003, USA
³³ PITT PACC, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA 15260, USA
³⁴ Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago IL 60637, USA
³⁵ Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago IL 60637, USA

Received: 17 September 2013
Accepted: 13 November 2013

Abstract

We present the Data Release 10 Quasar (DR10Q) catalog from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III. The catalog includes all BOSS objects that were targeted as quasar candidates during the first 2.5 years of the survey and that are confirmed as quasars via visual inspection of the spectra, have luminosities M_i[z = 2] <−20.5 (in a ΛCDM cosmology with H₀ = 70 km s^-1 Mpc^-1, Ω_M = 0.3, and Ω_Λ = 0.7), and either display at least one emission line with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) larger than 500 km s^-1 or, if not, have interesting/complex absorption features. The catalog also includes known quasars (mostly from SDSS-I and II) that were reobserved by BOSS. The catalog contains 166 583 quasars (74 454 are new discoveries since SDSS-DR9) detected over 6373 deg² with robust identification and redshift measured by a combination of principal component eigenspectra. The number of quasars with z > 2.15 (117 668) is ~5 times greater than the number of z > 2.15 quasars known prior to BOSS. Redshifts and FWHMs are provided for the strongest emission lines (C iv, C iii, Mg ii). The catalog identifies 16 461 broad absorption line quasars and gives their characteristics. For each object, the catalog presents five-band (u, g, r, i, z) CCD-based photometry with typical accuracy of 0.03 mag and information on the optical morphology and selection method. The catalog also contains X-ray, ultraviolet, near-infrared, and radio emission properties of the quasars, when available, from other large-area surveys. The calibrated digital spectra cover the wavelength region 3600−10 500 Å at a spectral resolution in the range 1300 < R < 2500; the spectra can be retrieved from the SDSS Catalog Archive Server. We also provide a supplemental list of an additional 2376 quasars that have been identified among the galaxy targets of the SDSS-III/BOSS.