Subsets of free groups with distinct differences

Abstract: Let

F_{n}

be a free group of rank

n

, with free generating set

X

. A subset

D

of

F_{n}

is a emph{Distinct Difference Configuration} if the differences

g^{- 1} h

are distinct, where

g

and

h

range over all (ordered) pairs of distinct elements of

D

. The subset

D

has diameter at most

d

if these differences all have length at most

d

. When

n

is fixed and

d

is large, the paper shows that the largest distinct difference configuration in

F_{n}

of diameter at most

d

has size approximately

(2 n - 1)^{d / 3}

.

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