Searching for observational evidence of radial mixing in the Milky Way disk

Abstract

Secular evolution in disks through angular momentum redistribution of stars induce radial mixing of their orbits. While theoretical studies and simulations now abound on the subject - with various predicted effects: disks growth, flattening of metallicity gradients, possible reversing of the mean age as a function of radius in disk, etc, observational evidences remain sparse. In the Galaxy, possible signatures are searched for in the local distributions of velocities, abundances and ages, or in the variation of large scale chemical gradients with time. I will present the current state of affairs and discuss what kind of evidences is available from data in the Milky Way.