Multiplicative measures on free groups

Abstract

We introduce a family of atomic measures on free groups generated by no-return random walks. These measures are shown to be very convenient for comparing "relative sizes" of subgroups, context-free and regular subsets (that, subsets generated by finite automata) of free groups. Many asymptotic characteristics of subsets and subgroups are naturally expressed as analytic properties of related generating functions. We introduce an hierarchy of asymptotic behaviour "at infinity" of subsets in the free groups, more sensitive than the traditionally used asymptotic density, and apply it to normal subgroups and regular subsets.