---
title: "A group without fixed price"
authors:
  - "OpenAI (internal model)"
year: 2026
venue: "openai/math manuscript collection (GitHub), result family 259; unreviewed"
arxiv: null
doi: null
source: "https://github.com/openai/math/blob/main/preprints/A-group-without-fixed-price-October-5-2026/unequal-costs-rank-100-amalgam.pdf"
topics:
  - "openai-math"
  - "ai-generated-math"
  - "group-theory"
  - "unformalized"
seed_rank: 2114
seed_batch: "openai-math-2026-10-07"
reviewed: "2026-10-07"
pool: "maths-foundations"
relevance_score: 7
lineage: ai-mathematical-reasoning
cites:
  - title: "A group without fixed price"
    url: "https://github.com/openai/math/blob/main/preprints/A-group-without-fixed-price-October-5-2026/unequal-costs-rank-100-amalgam.pdf"
    year: 2026
    arxiv: null
    doi: null
---

# A group without fixed price

## One-sentence takeaway

OpenAI's result family 259 (Group theory) claims: Constructs a finitely generated group with two essentially free probability-measure-preserving actions of different costs, answering the general fixed-price problem negatively.

## Why it matters here

Pure mathematics with no direct engine use; it is in the library as part of the openai/math corpus, which records what an AI research model claims to have proved. More broadly, every card in this batch is evidence for the `ai-mathematical-reasoning` thread: per the repo README, an unreleased internal OpenAI model produced it, using about three hours of ChatGPT Pro thinking compute per result on average, across roughly 4,000 posed problems.

## Key ideas

- Family summary (repo): Its Bernoulli action has cost bounded away from one, while a sequence of finite height extensions has costs tending to one.
- *A group without fixed price*: We construct a finitely generated group with two essentially free probability-measure-preserving actions of different costs. This gives a negative answer to Gaboriau's general fixed-price problem. The group is an amalgam of a free group of rank 100 with a direct product.

## Caveats

- Unreviewed: these are AI-generated manuscripts posted to GitHub with no peer review or arXiv deposit. The repo README says results are "at different stages of verification" and that "some of the unformalized results could have issues."
- This card restates the repo's family summary, manuscript abstracts and Lean scope notes. It is not an independent check of the proofs, and the scope of each theorem is exactly as stated there.
- Lean: not formalized. The repo has no Lean development for this family, so the claim rests on the prose manuscript(s) alone.

## Links

- Manuscript: [A group without fixed price](https://github.com/openai/math/blob/main/preprints/A-group-without-fixed-price-October-5-2026/unequal-costs-rank-100-amalgam.pdf)
- Family entry: https://github.com/openai/math/blob/main/CONTENTS.md
- Overview PDF: https://github.com/openai/math/blob/main/overview.pdf
- Repo: https://github.com/openai/math