Metric criteria for fixed price of countable groups

Abstract

We establish general criteria for a countable group $Γ$ to have fixed price 1 depending on a choice of left-invariant proper metric on $Γ$. We apply this criterion to show that if $Γ_1,Γ_2$ are two countable groups satisfying a certain growth condition then $Γ_1\times Γ_2$ has fixed price 1. For example, $Γ\times Γ$ has fixed price 1 for any countable group $Γ$.