The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Catalog: Twelfth data release

¹ INAF–Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, via G. B. Tiepolo 11, 34131 Trieste, Italy
² Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, LAM (Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille) UMR 7326, 13388 Marseille, France
³ UPMC-CNRS, UMR 7095, Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, 75014 Paris, France
⁴ Department of Physics, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
⁵ Institute for Astronomy, SUPA (Scottish Universities Physics Alliance), University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ, UK
⁶ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, USA
⁷ Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
⁸ APC, Astroparticule et Cosmologie, Université Paris Diderot, CNRS/IN2P3, CEA/Irfu, Observatoire de Paris, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 10 rue Alice Domon & Léonie Duquet, 75205 Paris Cedex 13, France
⁹ Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC), 38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
¹⁰ Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), Dept. Astrofisica, 38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
¹¹ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
¹² CEA, Centre de Saclay, Irfu/SPP, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
¹³ Department of Astronomy, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-2055, USA
¹⁴ Princeton University Observatory, Peyton Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
¹⁵ Instituto de Física Teórica (UAM/CSIC), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain
¹⁶ Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 50 St. George Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3H4, Canada
¹⁷ Apache Point Observatory and New Mexico State University, PO Box 59, Sunspot, NM, 88349-0059, USA
¹⁸ Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Moscow State University, Moscow
¹⁹ Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
²⁰ Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
²¹ Department of Physics, 104 Davey Lab, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
²² Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Bologna, viale Berti Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna, Italy
²³ INAF–Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, via Ranzani 1, 40127 Bologna, Italy
²⁴ Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 1, 85741 Garching, Germany
²⁵ McWilliams Center for Cosmology, Dept. of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA 15213, USA
²⁶ Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85750, USA
²⁷ Department of Physics and Astronomy, York University, 4700 Keele St., Toronto, ON, M3J 1P3, Canada
²⁸ Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University, 100871 Beijing, PR China
²⁹ Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK
³⁰ Kavli Institute for Cosmology, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK
³¹ Campus of International Excellence UAM+CSIC, Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain
³² Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC), Glorieta de la Astronomía, 18080 Granada, Spain
³³ INFN/National Institute for Nuclear Physics, via Valerio 2, 34127 Trieste, Italy
³⁴ Department of Astronomy and CCAPP, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43201, USA

^⋆ Corresponding author: Isabelle Pâris, e-mail: isabelle.paris@lam.fr

Received: 18 December 2015
Accepted: 23 August 2016

Abstract

We present the Data Release 12 Quasar catalog (DR12Q) from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III. This catalog includes all SDSS-III/BOSS objects that were spectroscopically targeted as quasar candidates during the full 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 previously known quasars (mostly from SDSS-I and II) that were reobserved by BOSS. The catalog contains 297 301 quasars (272 026 are new discoveries since the beginning of SDSS-III) detected over 9376 deg² with robust identification and redshift measured by a combination of principal component eigenspectra. The number of quasars with z > 2.15 (184 101, of which 167 742 are new discoveries) is about an order of magnitude 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 29 580 broad absorption line quasars and lists 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 together with some information on the optical morphology and the selection criteria. When available, the catalog also provides information on the optical variability of quasars using SDSS and Palomar Transient Factory multi-epoch photometry. 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, covering the wavelength region 3600–10 500 Å at a spectral resolution in the range 1300 < R < 2500, can be retrieved from the SDSS Catalog Archive Server. We also provide a supplemental list of an additional 4841 quasars that have been identified serendipitously outside of the superset defined to derive the main quasar catalog.