Galactic stellar populations with APOGEE and Kepler

Understanding the history of baryons is key to understanding galaxy formation, as galaxies with very similar stellar mass and/or dark matter halo mass can have markedly different morphologies in their stellar light. Stars are a useful way to study this history, because properties such as their composition, age, and orbital motion can map galaxy formation and evolution. Lightcurves from the Kepler mission, both original and extended, provide asteroseismic parameters, such as Δ ν and ν max , and rotation periods. The high‐resolution near‐infrared APOGEE spectroscopic survey is observing an extensive sample of red giants and cool dwarfs in both the Kepler and K2 fields to provide composition and effective temperature measurements. These spectroscopic and seismic parameters can be combined to yield ages, important for dissecting the history of the Milky Way. Results based on this combination have already been published in the first APOKASC catalog. Among the interesting results about stellar populations so far are the presence of a large metallicity spread in the young secondary red clump population at the solar circle, the identification of young, yet α‐rich stars, and the detection of a field blue straggler descendant. The K2 fields along the ecliptic will extend the possibilities of these techniques to new lines of sight in the Galaxy and provide a much more representative sample of Galactic populations with seismic and spectroscopic information.