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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 July 2015
The formation and evolution of the thick disc of the Milky Way remain controversial. We make use of the Besançon Galaxy model, which among other utilities can be used for data interpretation and to test different scenarios of galaxy formation and evolution. We examine these questions by studying the metallicity distribution of the thin and thick disc with the help of a sample of Main Sequence turn-off stars from the SEGUE survey. We developed a tool based on a MCMC-ABC method to determine the metallicity distribution and study the correlation between the fitted parameters. We obtained a local metallicity of the thick disc of − 0.47 ± 0.03 dex similar to previous studies and the thick disc shows no gradient. A flat gradient in the thick disc can be a consequence of radial mixing or the result of a strong turbulent gaseous disc.