Who Made the First Gold in the Universe?

The origin of the heaviest elements in the Universe remains one of the major open questions in astrophysics. While mergers of neutron stars are known to produce large amounts of these elements, they may occur too late in cosmic history to explain their presence in some of the oldest stars. For this reason, rapidly spinning massive stars that collapse to form black holes have been proposed as an alternative source. In these events, a dense accretion disk forms around the newborn black hole, potentially creating the right conditions to synthesize heavy elements and eject them into space on much shorter timescales. However, in the absence of large-scale simulations of these stars, it has remained unclear whether such collapsing stars could actually produce the neutron-rich material required to form the heaviest elements. Using the first numerical calculations, I will show that, surprisingly, these stars cannot generate the neutron-rich outflows needed to power robust heavy-element production. I will conclude by discussing what this implies for understanding where the heaviest elements come from and which cosmic events are likely their dominant source at early cosmic times.