Gas Rich Mergers in Disk Formation

In order to explain disk galaxy formation within the hierarchical structure formation, it seems that gas rich mergers must play an important role. We review here our previous studies which have shown the importance of mergers at high redshift being gas rich, in the formation of both the stellar halo and thick disk components of disk galaxies. Regulation of star formation in the building blocks of our galaxy is required to form a low mass low metallicity stellar halo. This regulation results in high redshift, gas rich mergers during which the thick disk forms. In these proceedings, we categorise stars from our simulated disk galaxy into thin and thick disk components by using the Toomre diagram. Rotation velocity, metallicity and age histograms of the two populations are presented, along with alpha element abundances (oxygen, silicone, magnesium), age-height above the plane, age-radius, metallicity-height, and metalicity-radius gradients.