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Article Contents

ABSTRACT

1.PROLOGUE

1.1.The New Galaxy

1.2.Near-Field and Far-Field Cosmology

1.3.A Working Model of Galaxy Formation

1.4.Timescales and Fossils

1.5.Goals of Near-Field Cosmology

2.STELLAR AGE DATING

3.STRUCTURE OF THE GALAXY

3.1.The Bulge

3.2.The Disk

3.3.The Stellar Halo

3.4.The Dark Halo

4.SIGNATURES OF GALAXY FORMATION

4.1.Zero Order Signatures - Information Preserved Since Dark Matter Virialized

4.1.1.Introduction

4.1.2.Signatures of the environment

4.1.3.Signatures of global quantities

4.1.4.Signatures of the internal distribution of specific angular momentum

4.1.5.Signatures of the CDM hierarchy

4.2.First Order Signatures - Information Preserved Since the Main Epoch of Baryon Dissipation

4.2.1.The structure of the disk

4.2.2.Can disks preserve fossil information?

4.2.3.Disk heating by accretion: the thick disk

4.2.4.Is there an age-metallicity relation?

4.2.5.Effects of environment and internal evolution

4.3.Second Order Signatures - Major Processes Involved in Subsequent Evolution

4.3.1.Introduction

4.3.2.Star formation history

4.3.3.Low surface brightness structures in galaxies

4.3.4.Open clusters

4.3.5.Globular clusters

4.3.6.Structures in phase space

5.THE GAIASPHERE AND THE LIMITS OF KNOWLEDGE

5.1.Introduction

5.2.Chemical Signatures

5.3.Reconstructing Ancient Star Groups

5.4.Chemical Abundance Space

5.5.Chemical Trajectories

5.6.Candidates for Chemical Tagging

5.7.Summary

6.EPILOGUE: CHALLENGES FOR THE FUTURE

LITERATURE CITED