BOSS DR12 Dataset¶
This document describes the BOSS DR12 dataset.
Sources¶
The igmspec database is intended to include all of the quasar spectra in the BOSS DR12 data release. The current version includes the following catalogs:
| Catalog | Description | Link |
|---|---|---|
| DR12Q | Official DR12 quasar release of the BOSS survey. This is 297,301 quasars | DR12Q |
| DR12Q_sup | Supplemental quasars | DR12Q_sup |
| DR12Q_supbad | Bad spectra identified as quasars | No unique link |
For DR12Q, I have ignored the ~50 sources with Z_VI>0 but Z_PCA and Z_PIPE junk. I noted that at least one of these doesn’t have a proper spectrum.
Meta Data¶
See the links provided above to see the full set of meta data provided with BOSS catalogs. It is quite extensive.
The flag_co column indicates the source of the continuum. It is a bitwise flag with 1=Zhu et al.; 2=Lee et al.
Spectra¶
v1.0 now includes all of the DR12 spectra. Note that some of these were downloaded by JXP (those at z>4.8 and those past v_5_7_0), while the rest were kindly provided by G. Zhu.
Continua¶
There are two sets of continua included in igmspec. As a default, we use the continua kindly provided by G. Zhu using the methodology described in this paper: Zhu et al. 2014. These are primarily useful for analysis outside of the Lya forest. Note that these were only generated for sources with z<4.8 and for data processed in v_5_7_0.
When available, we have used mean flux regulated continua kindly provided by K.G. Lee, as described in these papers: Lee et al. 2012, Lee et al. 2013. This continuum is restricted to rest-frame wavelengths of less than 1200A.