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

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.