Was the Milky Way Bulge Formed From The Buckling Disk Instability,
  Hierarchical Collapse, Accretion of Clumps, or All of the Above?
  The assembly of the Milky Way bulge is an old topic in astronomy, one now in
a period of renewed and rapid development. The dominant scenario for bulge
formation is that of the Milky Way as a nearly pure disk galaxy, with the inner
disk having formed a bar and buckled. This can potentially explain virtually
all bulge stars with [Fe/H] <~ -1.0, comprising 95% of the stellar population.
The evidence is the incredible success in N-body models of this type in making
meaningful predictions, such as the rotation curve and velocity dispersion
measured from radial velocities, and the spatial morphologies of the
peanut/X-shape and the long bar. The classical bulge scenario remains viable
for stars with [Fe/H] <~ -1.0 and potentially a minority of the other stars. A
classical bulge is expected from Lambda-CDM cosmological simulations, can
accentuate the properties of an existing bar in a hybrid system, and is most
consistent with the bulge abundance trends such as [Mg/Fe], which are elevated
relative to both the thin and thick disks. Finally, the clumpy-galaxy scenario
is considered, as it is the correct description of most Milky Way precursors
given observations of high-redshift galaxies. Simulations predict that these
star-forming clumps will sometimes migrate to the centres of galaxies where
they may form a bulge, and galaxies often include a bulge clump as well. They
will possibly form a bar with properties consistent with those of the Milky
Way, such as the exponential profile and metallicity gradient. Given the
relative successes of these scenarios, the Milky Way bulge is plausibly of
composite origin, with a classical bulge and/or inner halo numerically dominant
for stars with [Fe/H] <~ -1.0, a buckling thick disk for stars with -1.0 <~
[Fe/H] <~ -0.50 perhaps descended from the clumpy galaxy phase, and a buckling
thin disk for stars with [Fe/H] >~ -0.50.
