Tuesday

I will discuss chemo-dynamical models of the Milky Way in the era of Gaia. I will argue that these models are essential for understanding the complex selection effects of large spectroscopic surveys, and in particular that the interplay between dynamics and chemical evolution is necessary for their mutual understanding. For example, one-zone chemical evolution models are unable to predict observations from spectroscopic surveys because they fail to incorporate the mixing between zones that is caused by dynamical effects, such as radial migration. Understanding the dynamical history of the Galaxy is only possible by utilising the information encoded in stellar compositions, which retain memory of the Galaxy as it was in the past.

In this context, I will present a model of the chemo-dynamic structure of the extended solar neighbourhood. I will demonstrate how this model can be used to extract information from current large spectroscopic surveys (APOGEE, Gaia-ESO and RAVE) through the use of mock samples. By comparing mock samples with data, chemo-dynamical substructures can be discovered by the residual contrast they produce. The model can then be updated to include these substructures once they are found. I will also discuss how this model can be further extended to consider the full range of chemical elements that will be measured by future surveys.