Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
Many are the proposed scenarios for the formation of the thick disk of the Milky Way,going from the merger with smaller galaxies to fast gas accretion in the early Universe.Crucial information on which was the dominant mechanism for the formation of the thickdisk and other Galactic components is encoded in the chemical properties of their stars.By comparing the chemical properties of bulge, thick and thin disk stars one can addressthe question of which, among the competing processes of dissipation, satellite accretionand radial migration, play the dominant role in the formation of the different Galacticcomponents. The main difficulty at present is that current data samples suffer fromselection biases. Gaia shall bring a quantum leap to the solution of this problem, byproviding fiducial samples of the different galactic components with both, chemical andfull kinematic information. To pave the road for Gaia, theoretical models need to beimproved by taking into account both chemistry and dynamical aspects. A work of this kindis underway in Geneva Observatory.