56 Galactic bulge red giants Co and Cu abund.

Over the years we have derived the abundances of C, N, O, Na, Al, Mg; the iron-group elements Mn and Zn; and neutron-capture elements. In the present work we derive abundances of the iron-peak elements cobalt and copper. We also compute chemodynamical evolution models to interpret the observed behaviour of these elements as a function of iron.

The sample stars show mean values of [Co/Fe]~0.0 at all metallicities, and [Cu/Fe]~0.0 for [Fe/H]>=-0.8 and decreasing towards lower metallicities with a behaviour of a secondary element. We conclude that [Co/Fe] varies in lockstep with [Fe/H], which indicates that it should be produced in the alpha-rich freezeout mechanism in massive stars. Instead [Cu/Fe] follows the behaviour of a secondary element towards lower metallicities, indicating its production in the weak s-process nucleosynthesis in He-burning and later stages.

The chemodynamical models presented here confirm the behaviour of these two elements (i.e. [Co/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] ~ constant and [Cu/Fe] decreasing with decreasing metallicities).