OpenAI · 197-02 · 2026-09-23 · Algebra
A Counterexample to Kaplansky's Direct-Finiteness Conjecture in Characteristic Two
preprints/A-Counterexample-to-Kaplanskys-Direct-Finiteness-Conjecture-in-Characteristic-Two-September-23-2026
Family 197. Nonsofic groups and group-ring counterexamples.
The authors are OpenAI. This companion does not verify the proof and does not adopt it as a theorem of Ngo Cheung’s series. It is not a premise. O.1 stays NOT_CLOSED. Anti-de Sitter results are not a de Sitter state, not Em02-E’s relational lapse, not XVI-P’s QdS scheme, and not XVI-Q’s sigma-image record. No quantum coefficient is admitted. No compilation is asserted.
Read against the standing problems
Standing problems. No standing problem is named in this text. It was still read against the nine problems and does not close any of them. The authors are OpenAI. The companion does not verify the proof. This is not a premise of a manuscript by Ngo Cheung. O.1 stays NOT_CLOSED. No quantum coefficient is admitted. No compilation is asserted. XVI-P · XVI-N
Constructs a finitely presented torsion-free nonsofic group whose group algebra over is not directly finite, disproving Kaplansky's conjecture even without torsion. Companion examples give injective nonsurjective cellular automata on all configurations, refuting Gottschalk's surjunctivity conjecture. Another counterexample is an integral group-ring matrix, invertible over the rational group ring, with Fuglede–Kadison determinant strictly between zero and one, disproving the unrestricted Determinant Conjecture.
We disprove Kaplansky's direct-finiteness conjecture by constructing a finite field K of characteristic two, a finitely presented group G, and finite sums with but . The group G is nonsofic. The same elements define a cellular automaton on KG that is injective but not surjective, disproving Gottschalk's surjunctivity conjecture.
Preprint source and Lean scope
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This preprint is named in the Lean scope note for 197: A torsion-free group algebra that is not directly finite. The authors are OpenAI. This companion does not verify the formalization. It is not a premise. The OAI library is not imported. No compilation is asserted. O.1 stays NOT_CLOSED.