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 Mi[z = 2] < −20.5 (in a ΛCDMcosmology with H0 = 70 km s−1 Mpc−1,
ΩM = 0.3, and ΩΛ = 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.I.P. received partial support from Center of Excellence in
Astrophysics and Associated Technologies (PFB 06). The French Participation
Group to SDSS-III was supported by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche
under contracts ANR-08-BLAN-0222 and ANR-12-BS05-0015. A.D.M. is
a research fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany
and was partially supported through NSF Grant 1211112 and NASA ADAP
award NNX12AE38G. Funding for SDSS-III has been provided by the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National Science
Foundation, and the US Department of Energy Office of Science.This is the published version. It originally appeared in Astronomy and Astrophysics and is available online at http://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2014/03/aa22691-13/aa22691-13.html
