A Test for Radial Mixing Using Local Star Samples
  We use samples of local main-sequence stars to show that the radial gradient
of [Fe/H] in the thin disk of the Milky Way decreases with mean effective
stellar temperature. Many of these stars are visiting the solar neighborhood
from the inner and outer Galaxy. We use the angular momentum of each star about
the Galactic center to determine the guiding center radius and to eliminate the
effects of epicyclic motion, which would otherwise blur the estimated
gradients. We interpret the effective temperature as a proxy for mean age, and
conclude that the decreasing gradient is consistent with the predictions of
radial mixing due to transient spiral patterns. We find some evidence that the
trend of decreasing gradient with increasing mean age breaks to a constant
gradient for samples of stars whose main-sequence life-times exceed the likely
age of the thin disk.
