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Quenching, the cessation of star formation, is one of the most significantevents in the life cycle of galaxies. We show here the first evidence that theMilky Way experienced a generalised quenching of its star formation at the endof its thick disk formation $\sim$9 Gyr ago. Elemental abundances of starsstudied as part of the APOGEE survey reveal indeed that in less than $\sim$2Gyr the star formation rate in our Galaxy dropped by an order-of-magnitude.Because of the tight correlation between age and alpha abundance, this eventreflects in the dearth of stars along the inner disk sequence in the[Fe/H]-[$\alpha$/Fe] plane. Before this phase, which lasted about 1.5 Gyr, theMilky Way was actively forming stars. Afterwards, the star formation resumed ata much lower level to form the thin disk. These events are very well matched bythe latest observation of MW-type progenitors at high redshifts. In late typegalaxies, quenching is believed to be related to a long and secular exhaustionof gas. In our Galaxy, it occurred on a much shorter time scale, while thechemical continuity before and after the quenching indicates that it was notdue to the exhaustion of the gas. While quenching is generally associated withspheroids, our results show that it also occurs in galaxies like the Milky Way,possibly when they are undergoing a morphological transition from thick to thindisks. Given the demographics of late type galaxies in the local universe, inwhich classical bulges are rare, we suggest further that this may hold truegenerally in galaxies with mass lower than or approximately $M^*$, wherequenching could be directly a consequence of thick disk formation. We emphasizethat the quenching phase in the Milky Way could be contemporaneous with, andrelated to, the formation of the bar. We sketch a scenario on how a strong barmay inhibit star formation.

When the Milky Way turned off the lights: APOGEE provides evidence of star formation quenching in our Galaxy