The Fifth Workshop on Galactic Chemodynamics

Abstract

From 1992 to 1995, the annual Workshops on Galactic Chemodynamics were recognised as the primary crossdisciplinary meetings for theorists and observers interested in understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies — in particular, the Milky Way.1 The eight years subsequent to the Fourth Workshop have seen an extraordinary expansion in the field of chemodynamics, driven not only by the obvious advances in computational power, but by an incredible wealth of new observational data — ranging from the discovery of multiple chemo-kinematical substructures in the Milky Way and M31 halos, to the discovery of the most metal-poor object known in the Universe (also within the halo of the Milky Way). Further, the recognition that “near-field cosmology” — deconstructing the formation and evolution history of our Milky Way on a star-by-star basis — was the primary science driver for ambitious next-generation surveys and facilities such as the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE)2 and the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission3, led us to believe that a Fifth Workshop on Galactic Chemodynamics (GCDV) was long overdue. In September 2002, we put out a call for participation in GCDV and were overwhelmed with the number of positive responses. Our goal with GCDV was to once again bring together the leaders in the computational and observational fields, in order to galvanise efforts related to deconstructing the history of formation of the Milky Way. GCDV took place during 9–11 July 2003, at Swinburne University, Melbourne, Australia. A remarkable 46 participants from 13 countries attended the Workshop; 28 of the 36 talks presented there have been included in these proceedings. The broad topics covered during the meeting included: • the formation of the Milky Way in a Cold Dark Matter universe: merging versus smooth accretion • the connection between the halo, bulge, and thick+ thin disk components • correlations between chemical and dynamical properties of stars in the Milky Way