Chemistry and Kinematics of the Galaxy and the Large Magellanic Cloud: A Joint Project Between the University ofNorth Carolina and Bowling Green State University

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Dr. Laird will collaborate on this joint project with Dr. Bruce Carney at the University of North Carolina to begin four new observational programs which are dedicated to studies of the disk and outer halo of our Galaxy and to the Large Magellanic Cloud. (1) Several thousand dwarf stars will be identified in selected directions in the Galactic plane to determine the local density ratio of thin disk and thick disk populations of stars. (2) The outer disk of our Galaxy will be studied for information relevant to the formation timescale of the disk and for chemical and kinematic information about the outer disk. (3) The metallicities of red giant stars in globular clusters in the outer halo of our Galaxy and of dwarf spheroidal galaxies will be determined. (4) Metallicities and radial velocities of about 1000 giant stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud will be determined. This will reveal the history of the chemistry and kinematics of the older stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud. These principal investigators will also compute synthetic spectra for cooler stars and lower gravity stars in order to derive the mean matallicities from high resolution spectra obtained from observations.