Disk galaxies present a great regularity in their stellar bodies but reveal complex structures in their young stars and gas. The Milky Way is an ideal model organism to study the connection between the highly structured birth conditions and the subsequent dynamical evolution of its disk, as 6D phase space information was collected by the spectroscopic survey SDSS and Gaia space mission for its individual stars. I will present a simple statistical model for the formation and evolution of the Milky Way disk, describing when and where its stars were born, with what metallicity, and how their orbits evolved. The best fit model implies an inside-out growth consistent with redshift-size evolution of external star-forming galaxies, extensive radial migration, but only modest orbital heating. Consequently, the disk looks very regular without losing its radial gradients. To address the possible causes of this long-term evolution, I will then present the next steps such modelling could take, drawing inspiration from cosmological simulations.
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The colloquium will be held online
Daniela Bettoni