Homogeneous number of free generators

Abstract

We address two questions of Simon Thomas. First, we show that for any n>2 one can find a four generated free subgroup of SLn(Z) which is profinitely dense. More generally, we show that an arithmetic group \Gamma which admits the congruence subgroup property, has a profinitely dense free subgroup with an explicit bound of its rank. Next, we show that the set of profinitely dense, locally free subgroups of such an arithmetic group \Gamma is uncountable.