Clues to Radial Migration from the Properties of Outer Disks
Abstract
The outer disks of galaxies present a unique laboratory for studying the
process of disk formation. A considerable fraction of observed disks exhibit a
break in their surface brightness profiles. The ubiquity of these features
points to a crucial aspect of disk formation which must be explained. Recent
theoretical work suggests that such breaks are related to significant amounts
of radial migration. We discuss the current observational evidence which
supports this picture.