A constraint on the past star formation rate from the kinematics of nearby stars

The age dependence of the velocity dispersions σ_v(τ) of the nearby stars is considered under distinct assumptions on the history of the star formation rate. The velocity distributions N¦U¦, N¦V¦, N¦W¦ are derived from this by means of the diffusion theory using the standard case by WIELEN AND FUCHS (1983a) and are compared with the observed distributions of a kinematically unbiased sample of nearby stars. The best agreement is found for a nearly constant star formation rate.