Not evaluated
QAOA optimality for the SK model (family 281)
The gist
On October 6, 2026, OpenAI announced two manuscripts on the SK model: the ground-state energy attained by QAOA, and the full support of its zero-temperature order parameter.
DiscoverIA status on October 12, 2026: not evaluated, meaning no third-party evaluation found.
AI draft, not reviewedWhat has not been reviewed?
Text written by an AI (DiscoverIA pipeline), on . The status and its sources come from the registry; only the explanatory text has not been reviewed. A reported error is corrected, then the text is reviewed.
Cite this entry
A single status snapshot since Oct 12, 2026: a citation always points to a dated snapshot.
Cite snapshot 1, Oct 12, 2026
APA citation with the dated link
BibTeX @misc, key discoveria-oai-fam-281-qaoa-optimality-sk-model-r1
@misc{discoveria-oai-fam-281-qaoa-optimality-sk-model-r1,
author = {{DiscoverIA}},
title = {QAOA optimality for the SK model (family 281)},
howpublished = {DiscoverIA registry, entry oai-fam-281-qaoa-optimality-sk-model},
note = {Status “Not evaluated”, snapshot 1, recorded on October 12, 2026. New result},
year = {2026},
url = {https://discoveria.ai/entry/oai-fam-281-qaoa-optimality-sk-model#releve-1},
urldate = {2026-10-12}
}Dated link opens this snapshot in the history
To understand ≈ 20 s reading time, estimated
What it changes
The Sherrington-Kirkpatrick (SK) model describes spins with random couplings; its ground state is the configuration of lowest energy. If these manuscripts held up, QAOA, a quantum approximate optimisation algorithm, would attain the energy of that state in the thermodynamic-first limit.
What remains unclear
OpenAI itself supplies the Lean (a language in which a computer checks every step of a proof), and its review is marked “unchecked”. No third-party check has been read. The titles do not define the thermodynamic-first limit or the resources of the algorithm.
For experts
Sources, method, key facts, status history, report an error
Status
Not evaluated
Recorded on · github.com · 281.md
Step 1 of 4 on the scale: not evaluated. Next step: under review.
- Announced
- Recordednot evaluated
- nextTo follow
What this status means
Source reading : Source read word for word (level 3 of 3)
The result is declared neither right nor wrong.
To move to “Under review”: a public review under way. To “Peer reviewed”: a journal publication or a review by named experts.
Sources
- Main sourcegithub.com · CONTENTS.mdlink only, reading not recorded
- Repositorygithub.com · QAOA-attains-the-SK…link only, reading not recorded
- Repositorygithub.com · Full-support-of-the-zero…link only, reading not recorded
- Lean proofgithub.com · 281.mdpage read word for word
- Lean proofgithub.com · SKFullSupport.leanlink only, reading not recorded
- Lean proofgithub.com · SKValue.leanlink only, reading not recorded
Method
Two manuscripts are published: “QAOA attains the SK ground-state energy in the thermodynamic-first limit” (September 25, 2026) and “Full support of the zero-temperature Sherrington-Kirkpatrick order parameter” (September 27, 2026). OpenAI supplies lean/docs/281.md and 2 Comparator statements: lean/ComparatorChallenges/SKFullSupport.lean and lean/ComparatorChallenges/SKValue.lean. The file history.md reports no revision. DiscoverIA status: not evaluated, meaning that no third-party evaluation has been found in the sources read. Set on October 12, 2026 from github.com (page read, quotation checked word for word: “describes the scope of the Lean formalization”).
Limits
No named third party: the recorded checks come from the claimant or from a platform tool. The claimant supplies a Lean proof; as of this date, DiscoverIA has found no independent verification of this proof or of the result.
Key facts
- Claimed by
- OpenAI (unreleased internal model)
announced on Oct 6, 2026 - Nature
- new result
- Field
- Mathematics (Mathematical physics)
- In openai/math
- family 281, section “Mathematical physics”, 2 manuscripts dated Sep 25, 2026
- Lean proof
- supplied by the claimant, marked “unchecked” (not reviewed) in its repository
- Revisions
- none reported by the claimant
- Checked by
- claimant (Lean supplied, not checked by a third party)
- Sources
- 6 : 1 read word for word, 5 links only
- This entry
- AI draft, not reviewed
Status history
Only one observation so far.
- 01
First observation:Not evaluatedCurrent status
Family with a Lean proof supplied by the claimant. No third-party check read; the source marks this proof as not reviewed (“unchecked”).
Source: github.comread word for word
An observation is added; none is ever erased.
In the same set
openai/math: 719 manuscripts in 372 families from an unreleased internal model · entry 275 of 372, by family number
- Not evaluated : Failure of Kohn–Sham ensemble representation (family 278)
- Not evaluated : Exact quantum factoring over a fixed finite gate set (family 279)
- Not evaluated : Strong locality for strongly rational unitary vertex operator algebras (family 280)
- Not evaluated : QAOA optimality for the SK model (family 281)
- Not evaluated : Scale-to-conformal enhancement in four-dimensional QFT (family 282)
- Not evaluated : Polynomial-time, constant-error unitary synthesis from a Boolean oracle (family 283)
- Not evaluated : The optimal randomized–quantum query exponent (family 284)
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