The emergence of the first sources of light at redshifts of z˜10-30 signaled the transition from the simple initial state of the Universe to one of increasing complexity. Recent progress in our understanding of the formation of the first stars and galaxies, starting with cosmological initial conditions, primordial gas cooling, and subsequent collapse and fragmentation are reviewed. The important open question of how the pristine gas was enriched with heavy chemical elements in the wake of the first supernovae is emphasized.

The first generation of large-scale chemical tagging surveys, in particular the High Efficiency and Resolution Multi-Element Spectrograph (HERMES)/Galactic Archaeology with HERMES million star survey, promises to vastly expand our understanding of the chemical and dynamical evolution of the Galaxy. This, however, is contingent on our ability to confidently perform chemical tagging on such a large data set.

We present tentative evidence for the existence of a dissolved star cluster at [Fe/H] = -2.7 in the Sextans dwarf spheroidal galaxy. We use the technique of chemical tagging to identify stars that are highly clustered in a multi-dimensional chemical abundance space ( {C}-space). In a sample of six stars, three, possibly four, stars are identified as potential cluster stars.

In preparation for the High Efficiency and Resolution Multi-Element Spectrograph (HERMES) chemical tagging survey of about a million Galactic FGK stars, we estimate the number of independent dimensions of the space defined by the stellar chemical element abundances [X/Fe]. This leads to a way to study the origin of elements from observed chemical abundances using principal component analysis.

We present here a fast code for creating a synthetic survey of the Milky Way. Given one or more color-magnitude bounds, a survey size, and geometry, the code returns a catalog of stars in accordance with a given model of the Milky Way. The model can be specified by a set of density distributions or as an N-body realization. We provide fast and efficient algorithms for sampling both types of models.

The chemical abundance patterns of the oldest stars in the Galaxy are expected to contain residual signatures of the first stars in the early universe. Numerous studies attempt to explain the intrinsic abundance scatter observed in some metal-poor populations in terms of chemical inhomogeneities dispersed throughout the early Galactic medium due to discrete enrichment events. Just how the complex data and models are to be interpreted with respect to "progenitor yields" remains an open question. Here we show that stochastic chemical evolution models to date have overlooked a crucial fact.

The Galactic disk retains vast amount of information about how it came to be and how it evolved over cosmic time. However, we know very little about the secular processes associated with disk evolution. One major uncertainty is the extent to which stars migrate radially through the disk, thereby washing out signatures of their past (e.g., birth sites). Recent theoretical work finds that such "blurring" of the disk can be important if spiral arms are transient phenomena. Here we describe an experiment to determine the importance of diffusion from the Solar circle with cosmic time.

The long term goal of large-scale chemical tagging is to use stellar elemental abundances as a tracer of dispersed substructures of the Galactic disk. The identification of such lost stellar aggregates and the exploration of their chemical properties will be key in understanding the formation and evolution of the disk. Present day stellar structures such as open clusters and moving groups are the ideal testing grounds for the viability of chemical tagging, as they are believed to be the remnants of the original larger star-forming aggregates.

This paper presents abundances for 12 red giants of the old open cluster Collinder 261 based on spectra from the Very Large Telescope UVES. Abundances were derived for Na, Mg, Si, Ca, Mn, Fe, Ni, Zr, and Ba. We find that the cluster has a solar-level metallicity of [Fe/H]=-0.03 dex. However, most α- and s-process elements were found to be enhanced. The star-to-star scatter was consistent with the expected measurement uncertainty for all elements. The observed rms scatter is as follows: Na=0.07, Mg=0.05, Si=0.06, Ca=0.05, Mn=0.03, Fe=0.02, Ni=0.04, Zr=0.12, and Ba=0.03 dex.

We present abundances for a sample of F, G, and K dwarfs of the HR 1614 moving group based on high-resolution, high signal-to-noise ratio spectra from the Anglo-Australian Telescope UCLES instrument. Our sample includes stars from Feltzing and Holmberg, as well as from Eggen. Abundances were derived for Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Mn, Fe, Ni, Zr, Ba, Ce, Nd, and Eu. The α, Fe, and Fe-peak element abundances show a bimodal distribution, with four stars having solar metallicities, while the remaining 14 stars are metal-rich, [Fe/H]>=0.25 dex.