The space of coset partitions of F_n and Herzog-Sch\"onheim conjecture

Abstract: Let

G

be a group and

H_{1}

,...,

H_{s}

be subgroups of

G

of indices

d_{1}

,...,

d_{s}

respectively. In 1974, M. Herzog and J. Sch"onheim conjectured that if

{H_{i} a l p h a_{i}}_{i = 1}^{i = s}

,

a l p h a_{i} i n G

, is a coset partition of

G

, then

d_{1}

,..,

d_{s}

cannot be distinct. We consider the Herzog-Sch"onheim conjecture for free groups of finite rank. We define

Y

the space of coset partitions of

F_{n}

and show

Y

is a metric space with interesting properties. In a previous paper, we gave some sufficient conditions on the coset partition of

F_{n}

that ensure the conjecture is satisfied. Here, we show that each coset partition of

F_{n}

, which satisfies one of these conditions, has a neighborhood

U

in

Y

such that all the partitions in

U

satisfy also the conjecture.

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