Population studies. XI - The extended disk, halo configuration

The predictions of various putative disk, halo configurations in the solar neighborhood are compared with the body of data from newly available kinematically and nonkinematically selected samples. It is argued that the continuous extended disk configuration, together with a kinematically decoupled halo, is better able to represent the available observational material than is a three-discrete-component model containing a thin disk, a thick disk, and a halo having parameters similar to those suggested in the literature. While both model types are capable of producing the observed overall abundance distributions and the dependence of kinematics on abundance for kinematically selected samples, the extended disk-halo configuration is found to be superior to the preferred thin disk-thick disk, halo configuration.