Using vast new data samples to understand the disk of the Milky Way

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How did disk galaxies like our Milky Way form from the expanding universe? This project seeks to improve our models of this process. Numerical models informed by observation are the key to understanding galaxy formation. The models predict the properties of galaxies in detail, but must be tested and modified relative to the observed motions and chemical properties of stars in the Galactic disk. Adequate data is essential but not yet available. This is about to change. This project plans to use observations from two vast new surveys to measure the chemical properties and motions of a million disk stars, in order to inform the numerical models properly. It also plans to use new techniques to search for chemical fingerprints of intense star formation events in galactic disks in the early universe.