Old open clusters in the outer Galactic disk

Context.The outer parts of the Milky Way disk are believed to be one of the main arenas where the accretion of external material in the form of dwarf galaxies and subsequent formation of streams is taking place. The Monoceros stream and the Canis Major and Argo over-densities are notorious examples. Understanding whether what we detect is the signature of accretion or, more conservatively, simply the intrinsic nature of the disk, represents one of the major goals of modern Galactic astronomy.