Separability and Randomness in Free Groups

Abstract

We prove new separability results about free groups. Namely, if $H_1,\dots ,H_k$ are infinite index, finitely generated subgroups of a non-abelian free group $F$, then there exists a homomorphism onto some alternating group $f:F\twoheadrightarrow A_m$ such that whenever $H_i$ is not conjugate into $H_j$, then $f(H_i)$ is not conjugate into $f(H_j)$. The proof is probabilistic. We count the expected number of fixed points of $f(H_i)$'s and their subgroups under a carefully constructed measure.

21 pages, 2 figures, referee's comments incorporated