Be, V and Cu in the halo star CS 31082-001 from near-UV spectroscopy
  The 'First Stars' programme revealed the metal-poor halo star CS 31082-001 to
be r-process and actinide rich, including the first measurement of a uranium
abundance for an old star. To better characterise and understand such rare
objects, we present the first abundance estimates of three elements (Be, V, Cu)
for CS 31082-001 from analysis of its near-ultraviolet spectrum. Beryllium is
rarely measured in giant stars, and we confirm that its abundance in this star
is low due to the rather cool effective temperature that causes destruction of
both Be and Li in its atmosphere. Vanadium and copper are iron-peak elements
that are starting to be used as chemical-tagging indicators to investigate the
origin of stellar populations. We find V and Cu abundances for CS 31082-001
that are comparable to other metal-poor stars, and present new chemical
evolution models to investigate our results. In the case of V, extra
nucleosynthesis due to interaction of neutrinos with matter is included in the
models to be able to reproduce the measured abundance. Given the availability
of high-quality spectroscopy of CS 31082-001, we also explore other atomic
lines in the near-ultraviolet as a template for future studies of metal-poor
stars with the planned CUBES instrument in development for the Very Large
Telescope.
