Elemental abundance survey of the Galactic thick disc

We have performed an abundance analysis for F-and G-dwarfs of the Galactic thick-disc component. A sample of 176 nearby (d 150 pc) thick-disc candidate stars was chosen from the Hipparcos catalogue and subjected to a high-resolution spectroscopic analysis. Using accurate radial velocities combined with the Hipparcos astrometry, kinematics (U, V and W) and Galactic orbital parameters were computed. We estimate the probability for a star to belong to the thin disc, the thick disc or the halo. With a probability P 70 per cent taken as certain membership, we assigned 95 stars to the thick disc, 13 to the thin disc, and 20 to the halo. The remaining 48 stars in the sample cannot be assigned with reasonable certainty to one of the three components.