First Results from MFOSC-P : Low Resolution Optical Spectroscopy of a Sample of M Dwarfs Within 100 Parsecs

Mt Abu Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (MFOSC-P) is an in-house-developed instrument for the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) 1.2 m telescope at Mt Abu, India, commissioned in 2019 February. Here we present the first science results derived from the low-resolution spectroscopy programme of a sample of M dwarfs carried out during the commissioning run of MFOSC-P between 2019 February and June. M dwarfs carry great significance for exoplanet searches in the habitable zone and are among the promising candidates for the observatory’s several ongoing observational campaigns. Determination of their accurate atmospheric properties and fundamental parameters is essential to constrain both their atmospheric and evolutionary models. In this study, we provide a low-resolution (R ∼ 500) spectroscopic catalogue of 80 bright M dwarfs (J < 10) and classify them using their optical spectra. We have also performed spectral synthesis and χ2 minimization techniques to determine their fundamental parameters regarding effective temperature and surface gravity by comparing the observed spectra with the most recent BT-Settl synthetic spectra. The spectral type of M dwarfs in our sample ranges from M0 to M5. The derived effective temperature and surface gravity range from 4000–3000 K and 4.5–5.5 dex, respectively. In most of the cases, the derived spectral types are in good agreement with previously assigned photometric classifications.