You can't have gold until a nucleus decays. The specifics of that process have been hard to pin down, but UT's nuclear physicists have published three discoveries in one paper explaining key details.

In a study published in The Astrophysical Journal, scientists have proposed the features of the rapid neutron capture process (r-process) nucleosynthesis in a novel scenario: common envelop jet ...

Elements heavier than iron, such as gold and uranium, are primarily formed through neutron capture processes, specifically the rapid neutron capture process (r-process). The r-process, unlike the ...