Testing formation mechanisms of the Milky Way's thick disc with RAVE
  We study the eccentricity distribution of a thick disc sample of stars
observed in the Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) and compare it to that
expected in four simulations of thick disc formation in the literature
(accretion of satellites, heating of a primordial thin disc during a merger,
radial migration, and gas-rich mergers), as compiled by Sales et al. (2009). We
find that the distribution of our sample is peaked at low eccentricities and
falls off smoothly and rather steeply to high eccentricities. This distribution
is fairly robust to changes in distances, thin disc contamination, and the
particular thick disc sample used. Our results are inconsistent with what is
expected for the pure accretion simulation, since we find that the dynamics of
local thick disc stars implies that the majority must have formed "in situ". Of
the remaining models explored, the eccentricity distribution of our stars
appears to be most consistent with the gas-rich merger case.
