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It is shown that general populations of globular clusters and metal-poor field stars are components at least of three subsystems occupying different volumes in the Galaxy. The thick disk and proto-disk subsystems are genetically associated with the Galaxy. The age distributions of these two subsystems do not overlap. It is argued that heavy-element enrichment and the collapse of the proto-galactic medium occurred mainly in the period between the formation of the proto-disk halo and thick disk subsystems. The largest third subsystem has no metallicity gradient, most of its objects have retrograde motion in the Galaxy, some of them have unusually low content of a-elements, and their ages are comparatively low in average, supporting the hypothesis that the objects in this subsystem had an extragalactic origin.

Starting from recent determination of Fe, O, Na abundances on a restricted sample (N = 67) of halo and thick disk stars, a natural and well motivated selection criterion is defined for the classification globular cluster stars. An application is performed to M13 using a sample (N = 113) for which Fe, O, Na abundances have been recently inferred from observations. A comparison is made between the current and earlier M13 star classifications. Both O and Na empirical differential abundance distributions are determined for each class and for the whole sample (with the addition of Fe in the last case) and compared with their theoretical counterparts due to cosmic scatter obeying a Gaussian distribution whose parameters are inferred from related subsamples. The occurrence of an agreement between the empirical and theoretical distributions is interpreted as absence of significant chemical evolution and vice versa. The procedure is repeated with regard to four additional classes depending on whether oxygen and sodium abundance is above (stage CE) or below (stage AF) a selected threshold. Both O and Na empirical differential abundance distributions, related to the whole sample, exhibit a linear fit for the AF and CE stage. Within the errors, the oxygen slope for the CE stage is equal and of opposite sign with respect to the sodium slope for AF stage, while the contrary holds when dealing with the oxygen slope for the AF stage with respect to the sodium slope for the CE stage. In the light of simple models of chemical evolution applied to M13, oxygen depletion appears to be mainly turned into sodium enrichment for [O/H]≥ -1.35 and [Na/H]≤ -1.45, while one or more largely preferred channels occur for [O/H]< -1.35 and [Na/H]> -1.45. In addition, the primordial to the current M13 mass ratio can be inferred from the true sodium yield in units of the sodium solar abundance. Though the above results are mainly qualitative due to large (-+1.5 dex) uncertainties in abundance determination, still the exhibited trend is expected to be real. The proposed classification of globular cluster stars may be extended in a twofold manner, namely to: (i) elements other than Na and Fe and (ii) globular clusters other than M13.

The Magellanic Stream (MS) is the nearest example of agaseous trail formed by interacting galaxies. While the substantial gas masses in these kinds of circumgalactic structures are postulated to represent important sources of fuel for future star formation, the mechanisms whereby this material might be accreted back into galaxies remain unclear. Recent neutral hydrogen (HI) observations have demonstrated that the northern portion of the MS, which probably has been interacting with the Milky Way's hot gaseous halo for close to 1000~Myr, has a larger spatial extent than previously recognized, while also containing significant amounts of small-scale structure. After a brief consideration of the large-scale kinematics of the MS as traced by the recently-discovered extension of the MS, we explore the aging process of the MS gas through the operation of various hydrodynamic instabilities and interstellar turbulence. This in turn leads to consideration of processes whereby MS material survives as cool gas, and yet also evidently fails to form stars.Parallels between the MS and extragalactic tidal features are briefly discussed with an emphasis on steps toward establishing what the MS reveals about the critical role of local processes in determining the evolution of these kinds of systems.

The Magellanic Stream (MS) is the nearest example of a gaseous trail formed by interacting galaxies. While the substantial gas masses in these kinds of circumgalactic structures are postulated to represent important sources of fuel for future star formation, the mechanisms whereby this material might be accreted back into galaxies remain unclear. Recent neutral hydrogen (HI) observations have demonstrated that the northern portion of the MS, which probably has been interacting with the Milky Way's hot gaseous halo for close to 1000 Myr, has a larger spatial extent than previously recognized, while also containing significant amounts of small-scale structure. After a brief consideration of the large-scale kinematics of the MS as traced by the recently-discovered extension of the MS, we explore the aging process of the MS gas through the operation of various hydrodynamic instabilities and interstellar turbulence. This in turn leads to consideration of processes whereby MS material survives as cool gas, and yet also evidently fails to form stars. Parallels between the MS and extragalactic tidal features are brie'y discussed with an emphasis on steps toward establishing what the MS reveals about the critical role of local processes in determining the evolution of these kinds of systems.

A particular case of mass distribution in stellar systems, already described in the literature, is compared to the King model of mass distribution. For the cases which would correspond to the description of real stellar systems such as the globular clusters and dwarf galaxies, one finds a satisfactory agreement between these two mass distributions.

With the upcoming release of the Gaia catalog and the many multiplexed spectroscopic surveys on the horizon, we are rapidly moving into a new data-driven era in the study of the Milky Way’s stellar halo. When combined, these data sets will give us a many-dimensional view of stars in accreted structures in the halo that includes both dynamical information about their orbits and chemical information about their formation histories. Using simulated data from the state-of-the-art Latte simulations of Milky-Way-like galaxies, which include hydrodynamics, feedback, and chemical evolution in a cosmological setting, we demonstrate that while dynamical information alone can be used to constrain models of the Galactic mass distribution in the halo, including the extra dimensions provided by chemical abundances can improve these constraints as well as assist in untangling different accreted components.