Reconstructing fossil sub-structures of the Galactic disk: clues from abundance patterns of old open clusters and moving groups

TL;DR

This paper investigates the chemical abundance patterns of old open clusters and moving groups to evaluate the potential of chemical tagging in reconstructing the Galactic disk's substructures and understanding its formation history.

Contribution

It reanalyzes recent high-resolution abundance data of open clusters to assess the viability of chemical tagging for identifying dispersed stellar groups.

Findings

Identified distinct abundance trends in open clusters.

Reassessed the effectiveness of chemical tagging in Galactic archaeology.

Provided insights into the chemical signatures of stellar substructures.

Abstract

The long term goal of large-scale chemical tagging is to use stellar elemental abundances as a tracer of dispersed substructures of the Galactic disk. The identification of such lost stellar aggregates and the exploration of their chemical properties will be key in understanding the formation and evolution of the disk. Present day stellar structures such as open clusters and moving groups are the ideal testing grounds for the viability of chemical tagging, as they are believed to be the remnants of the original larger starforming aggregates. Until recently, high accuracy elemental abundance studies of open clusters and moving groups having been lacking in the literature. In this paper we examine recent high resolution abundance studies of open clusters to explore the various abundance trends and reasses the prospects of large-scale chemical tagging.