Analysis of the chemical evolution of the Galactic disk via dynamical simulations of the open cluster system

Abstract

For several decades now, open clusters have been used to study the structure and chemical evolution of the disk of our Galaxy. Due to the fact that their ages and metallicities can be determined with relatively good precision, and since they can be observed even at great distances, they are excellent tracers of the variations in the abundance of heavy chemical elements with age and position in the Galactic disk. In the present work we analyze the star formation history and the chemical evolution of the disk of the Galaxy using numerical simulations of the dynamical evolution of the system of open clusters in the Milky Way. Starting from hypotheses on the history of cluster formation and the chemical enrichment of the disk, we model the present properties of the Galactic open cluster system. The comparison of these models with the observations allows us to examine the validity of the assumed hypotheses and to improve our knowledge about the initial conditions of the chemical evolution of the Galactic disk.