Chemical abundances of field halo stars -- Implications for the building blocks of the Milky Way

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent advances in measuring chemical abundances of Milky Way halo stars, highlighting how combined chemical and kinematic data reveal galaxy formation history and discussing future observational and theoretical prospects.

Contribution

It synthesizes recent large-scale spectroscopic survey results and emphasizes the importance of chemical and phase-space data in understanding the Milky Way's assembly.

Findings

Large samples of halo stars with detailed chemical data are expanding.

Chemical and kinematic data help identify accretion events in the halo.

Future surveys and nucleosynthesis models will enhance understanding of galaxy formation.

Abstract

I would like to review recent efforts of detailed chemical abundance measurements for field Milky Way halo stars. Thanks to the advent of wide-field spectroscopic surveys up to a several kpc from the Sun, large samples of field halo stars with detailed chemical measurements are continuously expanding. Combination of the chemical information and full six dimensional phase-space information is now recognized as a powerful tool to identify cosmological accretion events that have built a sizable fraction of the present-day stellar halo. Future observational prospects with wide-field spectroscopic surveys and theoretical prospects with supernova nucleosynthetic yields are also discussed.