English

The Herzog-Schonheim conjecture for finitely generated groups

Group Theory 2024-11-20 v2 Algebraic Topology

Abstract

Let GG be a group and H1H_1,...,HsH_s be subgroups of GG of indices d1d_1,...,dsd_s respectively. In 1974, M. Herzog and J. Sch\"onheim conjectured that if {Hiαi}i=1i=s\{H_i\alpha_i\}_{i=1}^{i=s}, αiG\alpha_i\in G, is a coset partition of GG, then d1d_1,..,dsd_s cannot be distinct. We consider the Herzog-Sch\"onheim conjecture for free groups of finite rank and develop a new combinatorial approach, using covering spaces. We define YY the space of coset partitions of FnF_n and show YY is a metric space with interesting properties. We give some sufficient conditions on the coset partition that ensure the conjecture is satisfied and moreover has a neighborhood UU in YY such that all the partitions in UU satisfy also the conjecture.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1803.08301,
  title  = {The Herzog-Schonheim conjecture for finitely generated groups},
  author = {Fabienne Chouraqui},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1803.08301},
  year   = {2024}
}

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Updated version

R2 v1 2026-06-23T01:01:40.569Z