Implications of Radial Migration for Stellar Population Studies
  Recent theoretical work suggests that it may be common for stars in the disks
of spiral galaxies to migrate radially across significant distances in the
disk. Such migrations are a result of resonant scattering with spiral arms and
move the guiding centers of the stars while preserving the circularities of
their orbits. Migration can therefore efficiently mix stars in all parts of the
Galactic disk. We are rapidly approaching an important confluence of theory and
observation, where we may soon be able to uncover signatures of such processes
in our own Milky Way. The resolution and robustness of the physical modeling in
simulations has improved drastically, while observational datasets are
increasing in depth and astrometric accuracy. Here, we discuss the results from
our idealized N-body/SPH simulations of disk formation and evolution,
emphasizing specifically the observational consequences of stellar migration on
the solar neighborhood and the vertical structure of the disk. We demonstrate
that radial mixing of stars is a crucial dynamical process that we must try to
understand if we are to draw significant conclusions about our Galactic history
from the properties of stars in our vicinity.
